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Liz Heron

The first-ever degree offered outside Japan by one of the country's 700 universities will open in Hong Kong in October.

The master's degree in Japanese language and culture is being offered by Osaka University of Foreign Studies in partnership with HKU Space, the continuing education arm of the University of Hong Kong.

The two-year programme will be one of the first two qualifications for teachers of Japanese as a foreign language in Hong Kong.

Chinese University is to run a similar programme on its own in September.

The language has enjoyed a revival in popularity since it was recognised for fee reimbursement under the Continuing Education Fund and Japan removed its visa requirement for Hongkongers in 2004.

Currently, 30,000 adults are taking continuing education courses in Japanese and last year more than 10,000 adults took the Japanese proficiency test offered by the Japan Foundation, the language benchmark for work and study in Japan.

Tan Tack-ki, programme director for HKU Space's arts and humanities division, said: 'Japanese is the most popular foreign language after English in Hong Kong and there is a great need for qualified teachers in Japanese language and culture.

'About 60 per cent of Japanese language teachers in Hong Kong are native speakers but only a few have language teaching qualifications. That is out of step with Japan itself where most Japanese language teachers now have a language teaching qualification - either a master's degree in Japanese teaching and methodology or in linguistics.'

HKU Space visited 10 Japanese universities seeking a partner to run the programme and has been involved in talks with several universities over the past three years. But most talks foundered on difficulties in making the administrative innovations required to offer programmes abroad.

Mr Tan said: 'When we took our idea to Japanese universities, it was a complete novelty to them and many academics and administrators found it hard to understand the concept of studying for a Japanese degree without going to Japan. It was only with Osaka University of Foreign Study that we managed to get to the practical planning stage.'

The two-year programme costing $96,000 leads to an OUFS degree and is entirely taught by its staff. Students have to take 16-18 subjects - double the number required in some degrees offered by foreign universities in Hong Kong. The programme is taught in Japanese.

To enrol, students must be a Japanese graduate or have a first degree in another subject and a pass at level one in the Japanese proficiency test and pass a test of English reading and writing skills.



HKU Space pioneers Japanese teaching degree