Universities fear fall in overseas student applications

Japanese universities are bracing themselves for reduced applications from overseas students, as a result of the nationwide emergency alerts during the coronavirus crisis causing a delay to the start of the April academic year and closing campuses.

There are currently doubts about whether some special international programmes and exchanges will be able to go ahead in the autumn if restrictions and delays due to COVID-19 persist.

“COVID-19 has put the priority on retaining our foreign students and taking new steps to ensure we can keep up new applications from abroad,” said Yuichi Kondo, dean of admissions at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University or APU, where almost half of the 6,000 strong student body come from other countries.

APU is currently accepting new student applications for the fall semester in September. With some experts predicting a second wave, even in countries where COVID-19 cases have subsided, Kondo reports a slowdown in online applications for the fall semester.

But the university expects big reductions will be more apparent in 2022, as admissions decisions for the 2021 academic year have already been made and were likely to see the year through, he maintained.

Economic problems stemming from the pandemic lockdowns in Asian countries, the source of most international students applying to Japan, could heavily affect applications for 2022.

“Survival now depends on APU’s ability to reduce the impact of the crisis. Key steps towards this are to invest in remote learning and strengthen recruitment from our overseas offices. Yet mostly it is to convey the message to students that APU will maintain its education quality despite the ongoing changes,” explained Kondo.

Online teaching and new webinars have become the norm at the university, and will continue and intensify this year as enrolled foreign students are unable to return to Japan due to the ongoing travel ban to control virus infections.

International programmes in doubt

Other Japanese universities also indicated a drop in international students. Nagasaki University’s foreign student section reported that enrolments this year are now 5% of the student body, a drop from an average of 6% for the past few years. As a national university with fewer international students, the drop is significant for its internationalisation programme.

“It is a blow to our policy to increase our international student numbers to support the globalisation programme of the university. We have to now rethink the situation with COVID-19,” Noriko Oshita, spokesperson for the programme, told University World News.

Chinese, Taiwanese and South Korean nationals comprise the largest number of foreign students enrolled in four-year degrees at Japan’s universities.

Remote learning has been adopted widely, yet Oshita explained that learning Japanese culture is also important for foreign students and that can only be achieved in a physical campus atmosphere.

The university is currently discussing where to continue with its international programme in the fall, given expected travel and immigration restrictions and possible delays in visa processing.

Ayami Nakatani, head of the Discovery Program for Global Learners at Okayama University, which has offered a multidisciplinary degree taught in English since 2017, reports that new applications remain the same.

“We have accepted 29 foreign students this time, reaching our average of 30 students, who are mostly from Asia. The issue we face now is their visas as Japan is still not accepting foreigners under its COVID-19 protection policy,” she explained.

To cope with the new restrictions, there is now more emphasis on hybrid teaching combining remote teaching with physical classes which are restricted to specific courses and shorter periods.

“The learning rights of our students must be maintained in diverse ways,” she said.

Exchange programmes affected

The University of Tsukuba’s student exchange programme has also felt the impact of COVID-19 on enrolments. Yukie Watanabe, in charge of international exchanges at the university, says the university accepted 106 foreign students for this academic year, but only six of them were able to arrive and start in April. She is unsure whether the university will be able to go ahead with the next batch scheduled for October.

On average the exchange programme attracts almost 500 foreign students annually from around the world.

“COVID-19 has been a big blow to the exchange programme, which is vital for the university’s internationalisation,” she said.

But some universities note that applications for cutting-edge science and technology courses in Japan are holding up, and could be expanded to draw in more international students, experts say, particularly those hoping to intern with Japanese companies.

In early May the Obunsha Educational Information Center published a report on the impact of the pandemic on university applications for next year, highlighting a trend for students to opt for science and technology degrees as they believe this is where they can find jobs. The research was not necessarily focused on foreign students.

Many private Japanese universities are dependent on tuition fee income from international students and also have strong science and technology departments and top-end laboratories for graduate studies.

International students are also drawn by cheaper university tuition fees compared to Western universities, coupled with the prospect of working in Japan.

Tokyo Institute of Technology continues to receive applications from abroad. This is because Japan’s high-quality technology courses are attractive to foreign students, said Yuriko Sato, associate professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology.

However, she added that forecasts of lower job prospects in Japanese companies next year could have an impact on foreign student recruitment.