Prospective Students
Prospective Students
Admission Date: Late September 2020 (to be announced)
Number of Admitted Students: Several
Program Type(s): Research Student Program (non-degree)
Note: Students may apply for proceeding to a master's or doctoral program at Tokyo Tech
Application Period: September 12, 2019 — November 29, 2019
Tokyo Tech-recommended recipients of the Japanese Government (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology - MEXT) Scholarship will enroll in Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) as Research Students (non-degree) in September 2020.
Scholarship recipients who have demonstrated excellent academic achievement and who have passed the entrance examination for April 2022 or earlier may be eligible to enroll in Tokyo Tech's master's or doctoral programs and to extend the duration of the MEXT Scholarship under certain conditions.
Please note that applicants for the International Graduate Program (A) starting from September 2020 are not eligible to apply for this program.
The Research Student Program is a non-degree program, while the International Graduate Program (A) is a degree program for master's and doctoral students.
The qualifications stated below are based on the guidelines provided by MEXT for the previous round of recruitment. The new guidelines for the MEXT Scholarship commencing in September 2020 will be published in December 2019. Should there be any changes to the application requirements, announcement will be made through each applicant's prospective academic supervisor at Tokyo Tech.
Eligibility is limited to applicants who are not residing in Japan and who will be able to arrive in Japan prior to the enrollment period as a graduate-level student. In addition, applicants must have demonstrated excellent academic achievement with a grade point average of 2.30 (out of 3.00) or above in the last two academic years and meet certain criteria.
Finally, each applicant must have obtained either of the following items:
Applicants must have the nationality of a country that has diplomatic relations with Japan.
In principle, applicants must have been born on or after April 2, 1985.
Applicants must have academic ability equal or superior to that of a Japanese university graduate. The applicant will be deemed to have academic ability equal or superior to that of a Japanese university graduate, if they:
Note: Eligible applicants include those who otherwise satisfy or will satisfy qualification requirements for admission to a Japanese graduate school.
Applicants should apply for the field they studied at the previous university or its related field.
Applicants must be proficient in the English or Japanese language and meet one of the following conditions:
Applicants must be physically and mentally able to pursue studies at Tokyo Tech.
Applicants must be able to leave for and arrive in Japan within two weeks before the date of the beginning of the third quarter in September 2020.
Before arriving in Japan, those selected to receive the MEXT Scholarship must acquire Student visas. Please also note that those who change their visa status to a status other than Student after arrival in Japan will lose their status as Japanese Government (MEXT) Scholarship recipients as of the date their visa status changes.
Note: It is not guaranteed that those who change their visa status from Permanent Resident or Long-term Resident to Student will be able to revert to their former status after finishing their period as MEXT Scholarship Students.
Applicants who meet any of the following conditions are not eligible, and if identified after the start of the scholarship period, they will be required to withdraw from the scholarship:
Applicants for the scholarship should be willing to promote mutual understanding by participating in community events held in Japan.
After returning to their home country, former recipients are expected to maintain close contact with Tokyo Tech, cooperate in surveys, participate in events conducted by local Japanese diplomatic missions, and endeavor to support relations between their home country and Japan.
From October 2020 to March 2022 (18 months) as a Research Student
The monthly stipend will not be provided for September 2020.
[Information for MEXT Scholarship Research Students who will proceed to degree programs at Tokyo Tech]
If a scholarship recipient desires to proceed from the Research Student Program to a degree program at Tokyo Tech and has made outstanding academic achievements that meet certain criteria, it may be possible, contingent upon passing a screening by MEXT, to have the term of their MEXT Scholarship extended.
An extension of the term of the scholarship will not be approved if they fail to advance to a regular graduate program.
If they choose to proceed to a master's degree program and the extension of their scholarship is approved, the succeeding period of the MEXT Scholarship will be two years of a master's degree program. They may apply for another extension of the scholarship when proceeding to a doctoral program, provided that they had a grade point average of 2.50 or above out of 3.00 in the master's program and satisfy certain criteria. However, extensions are not guaranteed, as the number of scholarship students selected for extended financial support is quite limited.
The scholarship will be cancelled if they proceed to a more advanced level of education without receiving approval for the extension of the period of the scholarship.
Tokyo Tech-recommended MEXT Scholarship students cannot enter a graduate school of a university other than Tokyo Tech.
Scholarship recipients will be provided a monthly stipend of 146,000 JPY (Research Student). This stipend is subject to change as specified by the regulations of the MEXT Scholarship program.
The Scholarship will be terminated in the following cases:
The monthly stipend will not be granted to a recipient who takes a leave of absence or is long absent from Tokyo Tech.
Furthermore, if scholarship stipends were issued during the period in which one of the preceding cases applied, the recipient may be ordered to return stipends received during that period.
According to their itinerary and route as designated by MEXT, recipients will be provided with an economy class air ticket from the international airport closest to their place of residence to Narita or Haneda International Airport. In principle, the address given on the application form shall be recognized as the residence.
Expenses related to domestic travel from the recipient’s place of residence to the nearest international airport, airport taxes, airport usage fees, special taxes necessary for travel, travel expenses within Japan (including airline transit costs), travel insurance premiums, carry-on luggage or unaccompanied baggage expenses, etc., will NOT be covered.
Air travel from a country other than that of the recipient’s country of citizenship will not be covered by the scholarship. This provision does not apply if there are no direct flights from the recipient’s country, or if there are no Japanese diplomatic missions in the recipient’s country. In this case, however, the recipient must bear at their own expense travel and lodging costs incurred in the third country.
Air tickets will not be covered if the recipient chooses to travel to Japan before or after the period designated by MEXT.
An economy class air ticket for a flight from Narita or Haneda International Airport to the international airport closest to the recipient’s place of residence in their country of citizenship will be provided upon separate application as long as the recipient returns to their country during the final month in which they receive the scholarship. Expenses related to travel expenses within Japan (including airline transit costs), airport tax, airport usage charges, special taxes on overseas travel, domestic travel from the international airport in the recipient’s country to their place of residence, insurance premiums, carry-on luggage or unaccompanied baggage expenses, etc., will NOT be covered.
Note 1: Air ticket for the return will not be provided to those who stay in Japan after the scholarship period ends (e.g., for entering another university or obtaining a job) or who decide not to proceed to more advanced degree programs although they have applied for an extension of the scholarship period.
Note 2: Air tickets for temporary return to the recipient’s country will not be covered by the scholarship.
Note 3: In some cases, the air tickets may be provided by Tokyo Tech.
Fees for matriculation, tuition and entrance examinations will be waived by Tokyo Tech.
Application Deadline: November 29, 2019
Prior to submitting application materials to the International Student Exchange Division, applicants must arrange for a Tokyo Tech faculty member to serve as an academic supervisor before the stated application deadline. In order to be considered for admission, the applicant must first find an academic supervisor. The applicant is required to communicate directly with their intended academic supervisor at Tokyo Tech and obtain the consent of the desired faculty member to serve in this capacity. Applicants must directly contact the intended academic supervisor via email and provide a self-introductory statement and a letter of intent for their period of study at Tokyo Tech.
Applicants must request that their intended academic supervisor write a "Letter of Acceptance" (Form 5). The intended academic supervisor must conduct an interview with the applicant, prepare the letter and fill out other forms, and submit them to the International Student Exchange Division by January 7, 2020. If the intended academic supervisor is not sure about the application procedures, let them contact International Student Exchange Division (tokyotech.mext@jim.titech.ac.jp).
For further information on our faculty members, please refer to the "STAR Search" (Researchers' Database) on Tokyo Tech's website.
Some academic supervisors may require submission of additional documents before the stated deadline.
Submission of application documents is a two-step process:
Documents to be submitted by email by November 29
Attach photocopies or Word doc/Excel sheet of documents below to the email. The size of the attached file should not exceed 6MB in total. Applicants may use ZIP file format to compress the files. Files compressed using other archive file formats may not be accepted. For details of each document, refer to subsection 2: "Documents to be Prepared" above.
Note:
In March 2020, Tokyo Tech will announce its selection of candidates to be recommended for the MEXT Scholarship. Please note that a recommendation by Tokyo Tech does not mean that the applicant will be accepted by MEXT as a scholarship recipient. If MEXT rejects the recommendation, Tokyo Tech cannot offer admission. If the applicant would like to enroll to Tokyo Tech Research Student Program without MEXT Scholarship, they must separately apply for the privately-funded research student program. The official announcement of MEXT Scholarship recipients will be made in July 2020.
International Student Exchange Division
South Bldg. 6, Rm 308
Tokyo Institute of Technology
2-12-1, Ookayama, Meguro-ku,
Tokyo 152-8550, Japan
TEL: +81-3-5734-7667
FAX: +81-3-5734-3667