Press Release

The Columbia University, Teachers College Japan Campus is pleased to announce its official designation by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) as a "Foreign Graduate School, Japan Campus" as at September 20th, 2006.

Teachers College was founded in 1887 in New York and as the largest private graduate school of education in the U.S. (consistently ranked among the top three education schools by U.S. News Reports), it continues to develop innovative and practical programs for teachers. Since its establishment in 1987 in Tokyo, Teachers College has been offering teachers in Japan the same quality of professional and academic graduate work it has provided in New York for more than a century.

Congratulating Teachers College, President Itsuo Sonobe of the Columbia University Alumni Association in Japan (CUAAJ) said "I would like to express, on behalf of all members of the Columbia University Alumni Association of Japan (CUAAJ), hearty congratulations on the designation of Teachers College, Columbia University as a "Foreign Graduate School, Japan Campus" by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Columbia University is one of the top academic and research institutions in the world with 250 years' history and tradition. Currently there are about 2,000 Columbia graduates from undergraduate colleges, graduate programs and professional schools who live and work in Japan, at least 400 of them are involved in education. The teaching and guiding of students is a really rewarding endeavor, and teachers often affect their students' career development and the building or molding of their characters. I believe that the role of teachers is now more critical than ever here in Japan, and this designation of Teachers College by MEXT will therefore be highly beneficial to the education systems of both Japan and the U.S.".

These sentiments were echoed by Professor Emeritus John Fanselow, who as the faculty member most responsible for the founding of the Japan campus, commented, "it is appropriate that the accreditation from MEXT coincides with the 20th anniversary of the founding of the MA in TESOL program in Tokyo. Though the program from the beginning was "of age" academically and professionally as an extension of Teachers College in New York, the campus in Tokyo has now "come of age" bureaucratically as well. Though Columbia University's long and distinguished involvement in Japan started before the MA in TESOL -- Donald Keene's recent Chronicles of his time in Japan in the Daily Yomiuri and the recent series of discussions between Jerry Curtis and the Prime Minister and other political leaders in Asahi remind us of this fact -- the MA in TESOL has made this long and distinguished involvement real to hundreds of teachers of English in Japan".

The new status also means that all the "graduates who have worked so hard for an MA degree in Japan can now benefit from this achievement when they apply for higher degrees in Japanese universities" according to the Director of the Japan campus, Dr. Terry Royce. He added "for some years now Teachers College has been fully integrated into the Japanese university NACSIS ILL (Inter-Library Loan) system, so this designation represents another important step in the further integration of the campus into the Japanese educational system".

Dr. Royce added that besides the TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) graduate program, which has been offered since the establishment of TC in Japan, two new partial programs, International Educational Development, and Comparative and International Education, are being offered from 2006. Applicants from the East Asian region who apply to these New York-based programs can now start in Tokyo and then finish in New York.