Ogawa Seminar students participated in the Campus Asia Plus short-term exchange study program at the National University of Laos 2022

Ogawa Seminar students, Natsumi Shibata, Rika Sugiura, Yousuf Dass, and Yuka Furutani, participated in the Campus Asia Plus short-term exchange study program at the National University of Laos (NUOL) from 21st August to 19th September 2022. The program consisted of a one-week intensive course at the National University of Laos (NUOL) and a three-week internship at the Ministry of Education and Sports, Lao PDR. We also visited the Embassy of Japan in the Lao PDR, the JICA Laos Office, and the Laos-Japan Human Resource Development Institute (LJI). The Campus Asia Plus program started in 2022, based on the cooperation between the Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies (GSICS) of Kobe University and the NUOL.

The intensive course, Advanced Development Economics, at the NUOL was delivered by 6 faculty members from the Faculty of Economics and Business Management, NUOL. We participated in the course for 5 days and obtained 2 credits. We learned about the current development situation in Lao PDR from various perspectives; economic reform policy, education development, labor economics, and Foreign Direct Investment. The internship at the Ministry of Education and Sports provided opportunities for us to understand issues of education and education policies in Lao PDR through practical experiences and to conduct field research based on our research interests. The field research included interviews with teachers, a questionnaire survey with guardians, and classroom observation at pre-primary and primary schools in Vientiane Capital, Lao PDR.

The Campus Asia Plus short-term exchange study program helped us deepen our understanding of economic development and education development in Lao PDR. One of the most remarkable experiences was we visited schools and learned what are the issues in the field. We would like to keep improving our research skills to contribute to education development based on this experience.

We would like to show our sincere gratitude to the faculty members of NUOL, who kindly delivered lectures for us. We also sincerely appreciate Dr. Bounpanh Xaymountry, Director of the Department of Planning, who accepted us as interns of the Ministry of Education and Sports, and officers of the Department of Planning, who supported us in various perspectives during the internship period. We would like to express our deepest appreciation to our academic advisor, Professor Keiichi Ogawa, who has always supported us warmly from the applications to the end of the program. Last but not least, we are grateful to all who supported us through the program.

Authored by Yuka Furutani and Natsumi Shibata (Master’s Student)