Saitama University

Saitama University (SU) is located in the city of Saitama, close to Tokyo, in Japan. Three universities – Saitama Normal School (established in 1873), Urawa Higher School (1921), and Saitama Youth Normal School (1922) – amalgamated to form Saitama University in 1949. Its modern façade nestles amongst a green landscape. The active volcano Mount Fuji is believed to be sacred, and its silhouette is visible from campus on sunny days. Saitama city forms part of the commuter belt for employees based in Tokyo and is around two hours from the nearest airports, Haneda and Narita International. There is much interaction between Departments. There are five undergraduate faculties: Liberal Arts; Education; Economics; Science; and Engineering. While the Engineering faculty has a wide range of speciality options, the Liberal Arts faculty offers a tight range of majors and courses: global governance studies; sociology and field studies; philosophy and history; European culture and American studies; and Japanese and Asian culture. There is also a diverse international community as the university has exchange agreements in place with other institutions around the world, including Australia, Korea, India, and the United States. A number of courses are taught through English. However, for those who want to do their course in Japanese, the university does not offer language tutorials and requires any international applicants to have sufficient Japanese language skills to undertake a degree. The library has a collection of over 850,000 books, magazines and newspapers, alongside extensive sports facilities. A martial arts hall, a Japanese archery field, six tennis courts and gymnastic halls are among the resources available. One of the university’s most renowned graduates is Takaaki Kajita, who was co-awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics.