On October 1, 2014, Josai University Educational Corporation completed an academic exchange agreement with France’s Université Paris-Est Créteil Val de Marne (formerly université Paris 12-Val de Marne). As part of Josai’s Mid-term Target of strengthening international exchange to cultivate global human resources, our university has now formed academic exchange agreements with 128 institutions abroad, including three in France.

As part of his trip to Japan, Université Paris-Est Créteil administrator Eric Hertzler paid a visit to the Tokyo Kioicho Campus 3rd building International Conference Room where he applied his seal of approval to the academic exchange agreement. After Chancellor Noriko Mizuta provided her welcome greetings and Mr. Hertzler expressed his gratitude, the meeting proceeded with introductions of the two universities using prerecorded videos. Then, following greetings from Josai University President Yasunori Morimoto, Josai International University President Hakuo Yanagisawa, and executive faculty, Chancellor Mizuta and Mr. Hertzler apposed their seals to the exchange agreement. Mr. Hertzler also visited JIU’s Chiba Togane and Awa campuses on October 2, returning to the Tokyo Kioicho Campus on the 3rd to give a lecture entitled, “Globalization and France’s Higher Education System.”

Université Paris-Est Créteil, founded in 1970, is one of the Université de Paris: 13 autonomous national universities with institutions situated in Paris, Créteil, or Versailles. The university has an enrollment of roughly 30,000 with departments and research institutes in medicine, international relations, law, literature, linguistics, and economics, among others. The university also hosts nearly 3,000 exchange students per year, and plans with Josai are underway to launch student exchange and joint research programs in the near future.