On 30 April 2015 Professor Shin Nakagawa (Director of the OCU Global Exchange Office and professor at the OCU Faculty of Literature) signed an agreement with Chulalongkorn University in Thailand to officially establish the OCU Bangkok Office. The office will be located inside Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts. ?

Chulalongkorn University was established in 1917 and is the oldest national university in Thailand. It is a comprehensive university with 18 faculties and its status as a top class university in Thailand is illustrated by its number 48 ranking in the QS World University Ranking in 2014. Since 2002 OCU’s Faculty of Literature and Human Sciences, Urban Research Plaza, Faculty of Science and Faculty of Medicine consecutively concluded academic exchange agreements with Chulalongkorn University. The possibilities for exchange were further expanded with a university-wide exchange agreement signed in March 2013.?

The OCU Bangkok Office will not only serve as a base for exchange projects with Chulalongkorn University, but also with the other universities in Thailand with which OCU has exchange agreements in place, such as Thammasat University, Chiang Mai University, Mahidol University and Srinakharinwirot University. Part of the Bangkok Office mission will be to attract talented exchange students, to support the OCU alumni network and to facilitate university-industry collaboration projects. OCU plans to gradually expand the role of the Bangkok Office to cover more countries in South-East Asia.?

As shown by the creation of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015 the economic power of South-East Asia is growing steadily and the number of students studying abroad is increasing. By welcoming more students from South-East Asia OCU will be able to further diversify its international student community. At the same time we want to draw more attention to South-East Asia among our Japanese students, who now often still focus on the West. With the relationship between Osaka and Asia being historically inseparable, the Bangkok Office is expected to play a very significant role for OCU.

Dr. Suppakorn Disatapundhu, Dean of the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts at Chulalongkorn University (left) and Dr. Shin Nakagawa, Director of the Global Exchange Office at Osaka City University (right)