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Waseda University has announced it will serve as an Anchor University in the Bai Xian Education Foundation’s Asian Future Leaders Scholarship Program. Finding common cause with the idea of the program established by Mr. Ronald Kee-Young Chao, Vice Chairman of Novel Enterprises Ltd., Waseda signed a partnership agreement with the foundation and the Bai Xian Asia Institute.

Asian Future Leaders Scholarship Program Agreement Signing

The program aims to facilitate cross-cultural understanding and interactions among students coming from the Asia-Pacific region to the anchor universities in Japan or China. Other anchor universities include Kyoto University and the Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy at Hitotsubashi University in Japan; the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, as well as Peking University and Zhejiang University in China. Waseda also has partnership relations with all the anchor universities in China.

Waseda University will welcome the first scholarship students in September. Under the agreement with the Bai Xian Education Foundation, students from Asian countries enrolled in the double degree programs at Waseda’s School of Political Science and Economics will receive financial support of \150,000 a month. Each academic year, up to 15 students will receive aid. Various educational programs are being developed and students going to the anchor universities in China from Waseda will also receive grants in the future.

The Asian Future Leaders Scholarship Program requires its students to join a summer program held every year in August by the Bai Xian Asia Institute. The summer program aims to provide opportunities including human resource development through industry-academia collaboration between Asian economic circles and universities.

The signing ceremony on April 8th at Waseda University was attended by Waseda’s President Kaoru Kamata, and Prof. Seishi Sato, Dean of the School of Political Science and Economics; and from Hong Kong, by Mr. Chao, Chairman of the Foundation, Mrs. Juliana Chao, Governor of the Foundation, and two Governors of the Institute, Mr. Masaaki Ogino, Chairman of Fenix Group Holdings Ltd., and Mr. Shinichiro Watari, Chairman of Cornes & Co. Ltd. After the ceremony, the invited guests were escorted by President Kamata to the opening ceremony for Waseda’s Nakano International Community Plaza, followed by a party with student residents of WISH, the new Waseda International Student House dormitory within the Plaza.

At a press conference for the Bai Xian Education Foundation on May 6 in Beijing, Mr. Chao highlighted the foundation’s bright prospects. “Growing firm friendship among the youth based on mutual understanding will benefit not only the Asia-Pacific region but also the whole world.” Japanese industry leaders are also involved in management of the Foundation and have expressed high expectations, with one saying “If future leaders from both countries can understand and respect each other and become good friends, we will be able to overcome any difficulties we may face in the future.”