Regarding education and student life after the integration

Education in general, student status, etc.

At the time of integration, names of Tokyo Tech’s Schools and TMDU’s Faculties and Graduate Schools, campus names and locations, and educational structures (degree programs, curricula, enrollment capacity, etc.) will remain unchanged. Discussions on possible changes may start after the integration.

• Up to the day before integration, students of Tokyo Tech or TMDU will belong to the university they enrolled at. As of the day of integration, they will become students of Institute of Science Tokyo.
• Students enrolling in October 2024 will be the inaugural students of Institute of Science Tokyo.
• There will be no change in student ID numbers for current students.
• All current students will be issued a new Institute of Science Tokyo student ID card. How the new cards will be distributed and how current ID cards will be handled will be announced later once a decision has been made.

Those completing their undergraduate and graduate programs on or after the integration day will be graduates of the new university, and their diplomas will be issued under the name of Institute of Science Tokyo. However, for those who enroll at either TMDU or Tokyo Tech before the integration, we plan to include the name of each graduate’s former university on their diploma.

The dates and venues for future entrance and graduation ceremonies are yet to be decided.

For the time being, there will be no change from the current amount set by each School, Faculty, and Graduate School. However, the amount of tuition and other fees may be adjusted upon possible changes in the education structure and curriculum after the integration.

Courses at Tokyo Tech are offered based on a quarter system that divides the academic year into four periods, while TMDU operates on a two-semester basis. As changes in the academic calendar may have a significant impact on the curriculum, the current calendar systems at both universities will be maintained for now.

• In order to promote cross-registration of courses between science/engineering students belonging to Schools (hereinafter “science/engineering students”) and medical/dental/health care science/oral health care science students belonging to Faculties or Graduate Schools (hereinafter “medical/dental students”), as explained later in this document, we plan to standardize the start time of each class period for all courses offered in all programs in principle.
• However, there are exceptions in some courses at the medical/dental Faculties and Graduate Schools, such as evening programs.

• For now, the current online student support systems (Web System for Students and Faculty for Tokyo Tech, Dream Campus for TMDU) and learning management systems (T2SCHOLA for Tokyo Tech, WebClass for TMDU) will continue to operate.
• The handling of course cross-registration (as explained below) on each system is still under consideration.

At Institute of Science Tokyo, we will develop a system that enables cross-registration of courses for science/engineering students and medical/dental students so that each student can pursue their interests across fields whenever the timetable allows. For the moment, courses available for cross-registration will be selected in advance for undergraduate, graduate, and professional master’s programs alike. Details such as which courses will be selected and how to treat credits earned from them are still under consideration. Cross-registration of courses will be possible from the spring semester of AY 2025 in principle.

• As part of the above-mentioned cross-registration of courses, a new education program will be launched in April 2025 for undergraduate and graduate students respectively, in which science/engineering students can systematically study medical/dental fields in addition to their specialization, and vice versa. Program details will be announced when they become available.
• The program for graduate students will be named “Science and Technology for Health Care and Medicine”. For science/engineering graduate students, the program is planned to be launched as an interdisciplinary graduate major at each School and is an updated version of the current “Human Centered Science and Biomedical Engineering.” For medical/dental graduate students, we are considering it as an additional education program separate from the degree program, to be offered by each Faculty and Graduate School.

As part of the above-mentioned cross-registration of courses, we plan to introduce “Ookayama Day” for new undergraduate students enrolling in April 2025 or later. For the two months following enrollment (April through May), all new undergraduate students across Schools and Faculties will come to Ookayama Campus once a week on the same day to learn and communicate with each other, and to participate in the Visionary Project — a series of key courses that new students are required to take first after enrollment.

• While the members of the confederation will change from the current four universities (TMDU, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Tokyo Tech, and Hitotsubashi University) to three upon integration, the multidisciplinary courses will continue without substantial changes to the current framework, completion requirements, or other matters.
• Science/engineering students and medical/dental students participating in the multidisciplinary program will not be treated collectively as students of Institute of Science Tokyo. The separate completion requirements for the two groups will be maintained due to their different fields of specialization.
• The “Medical Engineering Course,” which is a collaborative multidisciplinary course between Tokyo Tech and TMDU, will stop calling for students after the integration (April 2024 will be the last opportunity for registration) and will only continue while there are still registered students.

For the time being, transfers of science/engineering students from a Department (under a School) to a School (under a Faculty) or a course (under a Graduate School), and of medical/dental students from a School (under a Faculty) or a course (under a Graduate School) to a Department (under a School) will not be possible.

Student life

Although the current enrollment fee and tuition exemption schemes may be partially revised, we do not plan to change the exemption criteria currently in place at Tokyo Tech and TMDU for the moment. We will also continue discussions on the desired form of exemption schemes following integration.

The scholarship programs currently in place at Tokyo Tech and TMDU will continue with no changes in eligibility, amounts, etc. We will also continue discussions on the desired form of post-integration scholarship programs.

• Exchanges between both universities’ extracurricular clubs and groups are already in progress. Discussions are also underway on possible integration of such clubs, taking individual circumstances into account such as the associations and competitions each group participates in.
• For extracurricular facilities, we are considering a reservation system and other arrangements that would allow all students to use facilities at any campus.

The current names, timing, and host campuses of festivals organized by Tokyo Tech and TMDU respectively will remain unchanged for now. However, we are considering the possibility of having a limited number of food stands at each other’s events. Additionally, we plan to continue evaluating the future direction of campus festivals even after the integration.

• For the time being, there will be no major changes in the operation of each dormitory owned by TMDU or Tokyo Tech.
• All students at Institute of Science Tokyo will be eligible to apply, regardless of their affiliation, for any dormitory owned by either of the two former universities, as long as they satisfy the relevant criteria. However, for the convenience of commuting, we are considering setting a “recommended campus(es)” for each dormitory and giving priority to students who commute to the recommended campus if the number of applications for a dormitory exceeds its capacity.

• We will consider continuing the short-term overseas exchange programs currently available at Tokyo Tech, in order to expand the scope of eligible students to medical/dental students expecting to travel in April 2025 or later.
• We plan to make extracurricular events, consultation schemes, etc. for language-learning support currently available at each university open to all students, and are considering when and how the activities can be implemented.

Joint orientation sessions will be held for all new undergraduate students at Institute of Science Tokyo, starting from April 2025. This welcome event will be the first opportunity for new students to meet and get to know each other in small groups, regardless of their School or Faculty.

Entrance examination, etc.