Honors Scholarship Interview

Monday, 15 June 2009 23:41 |

Dear APU students, this is the last article regarding one of the most sensitive issues of academic awards for this semester. After the second screening of the Honors Scholarship had been preceded, there were different opinions and rumors about the selection process among the international students. A number of students with financial difficulties were hopeful to receive the grant and feel some ease towards their financial situations. However acceptance on the first screening did not explicitly mean success on the second one. In order to respond to the controversy existing between students and the Scholarship department, the APU Times decided to investigate and reveal the results, in cooperation with the Students Support Center through the formal interview.

Interview Outcome

· What were the main selection criteria for the Honors Scholarship this time?

As a rule, the requirements for the Honors scholarship has been the same throughout the year, which are the academic performance (GPA), the number of credits registered and completed according to the school year, and extracurricular activities both inside and outside the APU. Another prominent condition is the correct fill of application according to the format.

· How many applicants applied for the Scholarship both undergraduate and graduate?

In total the number of the students which applied to the Honors Scholarship was 1033

· How many students passed the first screening? Please refer to the table below.

School Year	APM	APS
1	66	40
2	166	50
3	131	61
4	71	24

· What are the reasons JASSO has increased the number of scholarship recipients?

JASSO has implemented a policy to rise the number due to the heavy Yen appreciation occurred by the financial crisis.

· What are the future plans for the honors scholarship? Is it going to be as much as for this semester?

The policies regarding the Honors Scholarship is determined by JASSO; however SSC will do certain improvement in the selection process.

· What is the current situation with other scholarship foundations? Is the number increasing?

The number of the grants is rather decreasing.

· Will the amount of scholarship increase after the economic recession is over?

The current data does not provide evidence that the amount will increase.

· How many students did not pass due to the incorrect fill of application?

There were 264 students in total who could not pass the first screening due to the incorrect fill of application. More than that, students who did not meet the GPA requirements and those who did not attend the health check- ups were automatically disqualified.

Advice to students from SSC:

Regarding the first screening, no matter how high one’s academic performance is in terms of GPA and extracurricular activities, the scholarship will not be granted to him/her, if there are mistakes found in the application. It is pathetic that a big number of students fail to pass the application screening. Please pay attention to the following three important points while applying for the scholarship:

1. Qualifications of the scholarship (school year, GPA requirement, health check up).

2. Correct fill of application.

3. Submission of the necessary documents and put the checkmarks on the application guidelines.

Please refer to the following web pages, where the information about the scholarships is being updated.

http://www.apu.ac.jp/studentsupport/modules/auth/content/09SE-ScholarshipGuidance.pdf

Honors Scholarship part I

(Park Andrey APM'11)

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