The International Center
The International Center, established in May, 1988, is the office for the international exchange of students and scholars. It endeavors to promote the internationalization of the university. One of its main activities is to teach Japanese language and culture to foreign students and to Japanese returnee students who have lived extensively in foreign countries. It also provides English language instruction for Komazawa students.
The International Center Committee is composed of members from each faculty and administrative organization of the University. The Committee discusses the current affairs of the International Center and is responsible for its policies.
The main services offered by the International Center are as follows.
- Komazawa University promotes international relations with foreign universities on the basis of official agreements. The agreements establish a framework of rules for exchanging students who wish to study abroad. The map which follows exhibits the universities which have international exchange agreements with Komazawa University: The University of British Columbia (Canada); The University of Queensland (Australia); Griffith University (Australia); The University of California, Irvine (U.S.A); California State University, Los Angeles (U.S.A.); Arkansas Tech University (U.S.A.); The University of Hawaii, Manoa (U.S.A.); The University of Exeter (Great Britain); Dongguk University (The Republic of Korea); Tamkang University (Taiwan); East China Normal University (China);Université de Provence (France); Peking University (China); I-Shou University(Taiwan).
- The International Center conducts short-term intensive English, Chinese and French courses abroad for Komazawa University students. The programs for these intensive courses are sponsored by foreign universities that have an official agreement with Komazawa University. The students can learn practical English, Chinese and French from their home-stay environments and from friendships with students of the host university. The students in the intensive program lead very active lives for a month or more in the home stay environment. Groups of roughly thirty students from Komazawa University per program participate in these overseas intensive courses: The University of Exeter, The University of British Columbia, The University of California, Irvine, East China Normal University (all summer intensive courses); The University of Queensland, Université de Provence (spring intensive courses).
- Komazawa University provides intensive short-term courses for students from the University of Queensland of Australia. Every year in the months of November and December the International Center hosts about fifteen Australian students for a program of lectures on the language, culture, nature, and history of Japan. The program includes two weeks of home stay.
- The International Center provides advice and assistance to students who want to study abroad in a university either through a University program or on their own.
- The International Center provides official exchange students as well as other students from abroad such programs as an eight-course curriculum in the Japanese language and a ten-course curriculum in Japanese affairs.
- The International Center hosts visiting professors and scholars from abroad.
- The International Center conducts intensive courses for Komazawa University students preparing for the TOEFL® and TOEIC® examinations.
The International Exchange House
Komazawa University has a dormitory with 14 private rooms for accommodation of students from abroad. The International Center assigns the rooms to official exchange students as its first priority, and secondly to visiting scholars and researchers. Each room has very comfortable facilities including air-conditioning, a mini-kitchen, a refrigerator, a bath and shower, and an hi-speed Internet.