International Activities

August 19, 2011

International Seminar on Student Supports and Services at Higher Education Tokyo, Japan, December 17, 2009

One of university co-op’s visions is to contribute to higher education. We have been working on this through collaboration with universities all over the country. In the international field, we promote exchanges with student service administrators in higher education from various countries. We also conduct surveys and comparative research on student services.

National Federation of University Co-operative Associations (NFUCA) began exchanging information and ideas with German National Association for Student Affairs (Deutsches Studentenwerk/DSW) in the early 1990s.

DSW is the voluntary association of 61 local student service organizations in Germany and in charge of student welfare services across the country. DSW provides services for students, ranging from cafeterias, housing, study financing, counseling to cultural activities.

The International Seminar on Student Supports and Services at Higher Education was held on December 17, 2009, which took place at Daigaku Seikyo Building in Suginami Ward, Tokyo. The seminar brought together 58 participants from various backgrounds (universities, university co-ops, student services organizations, press and media), including 9 representatives of DSW. The seminar was organized by NFUCA under the sponsorship of Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO).

Our General Director & CEO Toshiaki Wada covered the issues of roles of the university co-op and three student services models around the world (market economy type, governmental support type, co-operative association type) in his talk entitled “Student Support and University Co-operatives: Consideration Based on an International Comparative Study.” Three representatives from DSW brought up topics of “Student Affairs International: European & German Perspective,” “Serving Students and Universities” and “Studentwerk Dresden” respectively, reporting on the student affairs/services in Germany and Europe and Bologna Process as a strategy towards more attractive higher education in Europe.

Through this seminar, we were able to develop a clear understanding of the importance of student services for study and research activities in university, as been recognized at The UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education which was held in July 2009. We believe the seminar has served as a place to reconfirm the need to strengthen exchanges and cooperation of NFUCA and DSW, and to further develop student services in the higher education.

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