Interactive Presentation Female Non-WEIRD Students’ Experiences in Japan more

Sun, May 22, 14:30-15:15 Asia/Tokyo

The number of students coming from abroad to attend Japanese universities has increased significantly over the last 10 years following government initiatives regarding globalization. Many of these students come from non-WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) countries and engage in English-medium learning at the graduate level. This presentation will discuss the present situation in Japan regarding international students, and the flow of students globally, with a particular focus on female students. Then the experiences of 3 female graduate students studying at a Japanese national university that focuses on STEAM subjects will be examined. The participants come from diverse backgrounds, and semi-structured interviews were used to explore their experiences in their new environment. The narratives were analyzed using grounded theory and the discussion of the results explores the push factors that encouraged the participants to leave their home countries, and the pull factors that attracted them to Japanese higher education and their new homes. Additionally, whilst acknowledging the problems female international students have in Japanese universities positive aspects of studying in Japan will also be highlighted.