About the University of Tokyo 

The University of Tokyo, established in 1877 as an imperial university, is considered to be one of the most prestigious universities in Japan. The University of Tokyo is a large scale academic hub with 10 faculties, 15 graduate schools that are home to a total of 30,000 students, out of which 2,100 are international.

In recent years, the University of Tokyo has opened its doors to international students and researchers through its English-taught programs. It is no surprise that the university is one of the top schools selected for the MEXT’s Top Global University Project in which it will become an example of the competitiveness of Japanese higher education. 

Will the prestigious university name and a rigorous curriculum help the alumni from the University of Tokyo stand out? Let’s take a look at what the university can offer its students. 

Career Support on Campus

In order to support international students, the University of Tokyo established the Career Support Office that offers students various services to help them with their job-hunting process. Students can come to the center to find recruitment information of prospective companies, reserve individual career counseling, as well as attend career-related seminars and events. Through the seminars and guidance, students can leverage their job-hunting strategies and picking up skills that will place them ahead of the pool.

At the center, full-time advisors will provide individual career consultations for international students who are interested in finding employment in Japan or wanting to consult with them individually regarding job hunting activities. Advisors will be able to help the students in various activities, such as providing information sources to help the student with finding the right industries or company types, how to fill in the entry sheet and resumes, how to practice for one-on-one and group interviews, etc. As a general rule, consultations will be conducted in Japanese, with priority given to reservations. Counseling time is 45 minutes per person, and once a week in principle. Students can reserve their desired time slots online through the website system. 

Besides the support from the Career Center, it is also advisable that current soon-to-graduate students also get in touch with their respective faculties to gain advice from professors and academic advisors on their recommendations of the next steps, connect with alumni and peers, as well as do research on possible graduate programs or employment positions that they can go into. 

Future Paths of Alumni 

Alumni of the University of Tokyo are known to have an advantage in the job market thanks to the prestige and the academic excellence of the university. As PEAK is a multidisciplinary and holistic program, students are educated and trained to be problem solvers, experts, and policymakers who can think of solutions from different perspectives.

In the Japan in East Asia program, students can acquire a wide breadth of knowledge in humanity and social science studies, which makes them suitable for roles in international/national public services, multinational business, journalism, international NGOs, and education. They will have the ability to understand the multilayered social, cultural and economic issues of Japan in the context of the East Asia region. Furthermore, these graduates also possess excellent language skills which will enhance their capacity to engage in international collaborative career and research opportunities as the representatives on the front of international relations, political sciences, social studies, and more. 

In the Environmental Sciences program, students will be in touch with both strong science training as well as practical learning. Therefore, alumni from the program are well-suited for both different industries, such as manufacturing, telecommunications, technology firms where environmental protection is placed high on the agenda, or consultancy firms that seek to offer advice to clients who want to adapt their business strategies in the changing world. Besides employment, alumni can choose to dive deeper into research by choosing to attend the Graduate Programs in Environmental Science at the University of Tokyo, which is also offered in English, as a natural progression for their professional path. 

For the PEAK program, according to the statistics from the university website, during the 2012 – 2014 entry, 46% of students proceeded to graduate schools, and 37% chose employment. Almost half of them chose to attend graduate schools in the US, many of which are highly ranked schools, such as Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, etc. and the rest also proceeded to well-known schools worldwide. Alumni in the Japan in East Asia track continued their studies in fields such as East Asian Studies, Global Governance and Diplomacy, Global Studies, etc. while those in the Environmental Sciences track chose Economics, Computer Science, Environmental Economics and Policy, etc. For those who chose to find employment after graduation, the largest sectors were consulting and finance at 33% and 17% respectively.

Conclusion 

The past records of post-graduation performance of the PEAK program show that the curriculum and strong career support at the university has played a crucial role in ensuring that students can strive towards their goals and contributing to our society with their respective fields of interest. It might not be easy for international students to adapt to the job-hunting process due to differences in language, culture and educational system in Japan, but provided a strong base of support from the university, it is proven that alumni will be able to seek a path and make use of their knowledge and skills learned at the University of Tokyo.