JICA SDGs Global Leadership Program
1. General Prospectus
SDGs Global Leadership Program is newly established in JFY 2019 that offers participants an opportunity to study the respective academic fields in Master’s or Doctoral degree courses at Japanese graduate schools, and to deepen the understanding of Japanese development experiences.
The objectives of the program are to foster young or mid-career personnel who contribute to tacking challenges in respective fields through a political decision and implementation and maintain a long-term good relationship between the target countries and Japan.
The program consists of the acceptance of scholars from countries including Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippine, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam), Pacific region (Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu), South Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka), East and Central Asia (Mongolia, Tajikistan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkmenistan), Latin America (Jamaica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Mexico, Dominica, Guatemala, Cuba, Belize, Chile, Peru, Costa Rica, Brazil, Paraguay, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Guyana, Nicaragua, Haiti, Argentina, Bolivia, Columbia, Uruguay, a total of 32 countries not including Venezuela), Middle East (Iran, Serbia, North Macedonia), and 49 from Sub-Saharan Africa.
Officially dispatched students under the program will enrol in Hiroshima University as Research Students in the Research Student Program starting from September 2021.
Participants who pass the entrance examination for April 2022 will be eligible to enroll in Hiroshima University’s Master’s degree or Doctoral degree Program. Those who do not pass the entrance examination must return to their home countries.
2. Program
Please refer to JICA website of your home country for further details of the program.
3. Qualifications and JICA Financial Support
Individuals must satisfy eligibility requirements of both JICA and Hiroshima University.
- For eligibility requirements of JICA, please contact JICA of your home country.
- For eligibility requirements of Hiroshima University, please refer to the following.
Scholarship Benefits and Stipend:
Scholarship recipients will be provided a monthly stipend of 146,000 JPY (as Research Student). This stipend is subject to change as specified by the regulations of the JICA SDGs Global Leadership program. The monthly stipend will not be paid to those who take a leave of absence or is long absent from Hiroshima University. The term of scholarship is from October 2021 to March 2022 as a Research Student (the monthly stipend will not be provided for September 2021).
4. Application Procedures
Please follow the following three steps of application procedures.
1st step: Selection procedures at JICA office of your home country (through November 2020)
Applicants are required to submit necessary documents to JICA overseas office and go through the selection process. For those applicants who select Hiroshima University as no. 1 choice, the applicants must first find and contact your prospective academic supervisor. Additionally, at this step, all applicants may contact a prospective academic supervisor to verify your specialization and preferred research field. To find a prospective academic supervisor, please refer to “1. Finding an Academic Supervisor” below for details.
2nd step: Matching Procedures at Hiroshima University (from mid-December 2020 – early January 2021)
The applicants who passed the 1st step can proceed to the “Matching” procedures at Hiroshima University. At this step, the selected applicants may undergo an initial interview by our faculty members, including your prospective academic supervisor. The selected applicants may be asked to submit necessary documents at this step required by Hiroshima University, which may include the following: Official Academic transcripts, Certificate of Graduation or Expected Graduation, Research plan or Research Status Sheet, English proficiency test scores, and Evaluation sheet with Recommendation Letter from a Supervisor, Head of Department, etc. of the last university attended. Please refer to “2. Documents to be Submitted” below for the detail of these documents.
3rd step: Applying for Hiroshima University (March 1 – April 1, 2021)
After 1st and 2nd steps, final candidates are selected. At this step, final candidates are required to officially apply for Hiroshima University by submitting the completed application documents to Hiroshima University, no later than the application deadline of April 1, 2021, by registered mail, courier service or a similar service. Please refer to “2. Documents to be Submitted” and “3. Submission of Application Documents” below for details. Notification of the results will be announced in July 2021 by JICA.
1) Finding an Academic Supervisor
To find prospective academic supervisor, the applicant is required to communicate directly with his/her prospective academic supervisor at Hiroshima University via email and provide a self-introductory statement and a letter of intent for his/her period of study at Hiroshima University.
For further information on our faculty members, please refer to the Faculty staff to choose a suitable prospective academic supervisor based on your specialization and preferred research field. Contact the specific faculty member directly and obtain his or her consent via Hiroshima University’s web site.
Once accepted at 2nd step above, the applicant must request that his/her academic supervisor write a “Letter of Acceptance”. The academic supervisor must fill out the form and directly submit it to the International Student Exchange Division by January 7, 2021. The “Letter of Acceptance” will serve as one of the applicant’s documents to be considered during the application screening process in 3rd step.