Under the “Japanese-German Graduate Externship”, Japanese and German universities work together to carry out joint research and education activities at the graduate level. Japanese and German doctorial students (six or more respectively) are exchanged between the counterpart graduate schools in the two countries for a period of up to 10 months where they engage in research and education activities. Young researchers including academic teaching professionals and post doctoral fellows are also exchanged. In these ways, the program aims to promote more systematic academic exchange between universities and graduate schools in Japan and Germany, while helping both to foster young researchers in doctoral programs and to advance international joint research.

Japanese and German graduate schools

1. Establish joint curricula at the doctoral level
2. Establish credit transfer systems between Japanese and German graduate schools
3. Develop the programs with an aim to award joint degrees
4. Work together systematically in implementing the program.

Also,

1. Academic teaching professionals of Japanese and German graduate schools alternate visits to the counterpart country’s universities to give instruction in intensive courses and to provide research guidance.
2. Japanese and German doctoral students receive research guidance, including that related to preparing their doctoral dissertations, at the counterpart graduate schools.

1. Internationalizing and raising the standard of graduate school education
2. Promoting of systematic development, raising international compatibility and reliability of educational curricula.

The program is carried out based on a memorandum of cooperation (MoC) concluded between JSPS and DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft)

JSPS and DFG provide funding to their respective country’s universities to defray the costs for the exchange of doctoral students, young researchers including postdocs, and teaching professionals and to hold joint seminars in their countries.