OQEANOUS Plus ProgramOversea Quality-assured Education in Asian Nations
for Ocean University Students Plus

STP Report (SHOU Jul - Aug 2024)

2025.03.06

Course of Marine Life Sciences, Graduate School of TUMSAT
1st year of Master's Program
S.A.

Reasons for applying to STP

I applied to STP for three reasons. The first was that the last time I was out of the country was when I was in high school, and I was curious about the changes before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The second was that I had never been to China. Third, I wanted to interact with people from other countries.

About the online lectures

I was able to take lectures from professors in various fields from each of the universities participating in OQEANOUS Plus. Once again, I was reminded of the breadth of the discipline of marine science. I learned a lot, especially about nutrition and chemical processing, which I didn't know a lot about.

About the face-to-face program (field trip) at Shanghai Ocean University

The food was extremely delicious. Drinks in China were cheaper than in Japan, so I did not have to worry about beverages. The field guidance by the students at Shanghai Ocean University was also very good and easy to understand. I have fond memories of the bars and souvenir shops that they showed us. I also thought it was a valuable experience to be able to go inside facilities that I would not have been able to enter if I had just gone there normally.

About the exchange with students from other universities

In addition to Japanese, Chinese, and Korean students, there were also students from Thailand and Malaysia, and I enjoyed the cultural exchange with them. One thing worth mentioning is the communication with my roommate. My roommate was a student from the Universiti Malaya, and we were able to talk about each other's national politics, cultural activities, and history, which was very meaningful. I felt that the people gathered at this time had learned English as a foreign language and had tried to communicate with people from all over the world. It was a rare experience for us to be able to help each other when there were words that did not come to mind, and to digest the words so that the meaning could be conveyed to the other person before communicating, and I thought that this was a good form of communication.

What changed in my mindset after participating in the program

I realized that no matter what country you are from, you can come together and work together. Wherever or whatever the person is, we don't need to put up barriers or have prejudice against it. We can understand each other.