With growing interests of Mongolian students to improve their skills and knowledge and to become globally competitive, the number of students studying at doctoral and master level programs at Japanese universities has increased steadily from 250 in 2004 to 6779 by 2017. According to JASSO (2019), 312 doctoral students are currently studying in various scientific fields including medicine, engineering, technology, veterinary, education, culture, economy, computer science and others.
In 2016, the former and current doctoral students in Japan established an online network called, “Mongolian Doctoral Students and Researchers’ Group in Japan” (hereinafter referred to as MDSRJ). It is an open space that connects mainly Mongolian doctoral students and early career researchers to network and share experiences, ideas, and scientific knowledge with the ultimate aim to increase the impact and relevance of our research to the solutions of local and global issues with high importance.
ABOUT OUR FORUM-2019
As a first step and continuous process toward these ambitious goals, the forum was initiated by the founding members of the group. It is an open and a face-to-face platform where young researchers from natural and applied, social and humanity sciences gather together for these purposes once a year.
Previous forums:
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The First General Forum, May 5-6, 2017, Tokyo (See report)
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The First Sectoral Forum, May 3, 2018, Tokyo (See report)
The forums have been organized with an active support from the Embassy of Mongolia in Japan and under the collective effort of the “Forum Working Group”. The voluntarily organized members of the Working Group rely on online and face-to-face communications in order to bring an emerging needs and interests of doctoral students and researchers into a center of visible and lively discussions.
Demographics at a glance: Who joined MDSRJ?
As of November 2019, MDSRJ has 210 members. Among the available data of 205 members, 62.5% are doctoral students and 32.6% are doctoral degree holders further studying and/or working in various institutions across Japan.