International College of Technology (ICT) is an institution of higher education with a five-year program.
We provide 15-year-old students who have completed junior high school with an educational environment and system based on “STEM professional fundamentals,” “Engineering design” and “Extracurricular activities.” Our program broadens students’ perspectives, enhances their thinking skills, and allows them to experience the joy of learning, both from instructors and through group activities.
In their first and second years in boarding school, students attend night school (“learning sessions”), where they receive support for preparation and review of their lessons and project activities according to their level. In their third year, they study in New Zealand along with local students, and in their fourth and fifth years, they study with KIT students while working on an education and research project. Our special recommendation system allows our students to continue to study at KIT after they graduate from ICT.

It refers to the nine years of integrated education consisting of five years at ICT and four years at KIT (3rd year and 4th year of undergraduate study and two years of a graduate school Master’s course).
ICT and KIT aim to produce high-level researchers and engineers, who will be “global innovators.” While there are many possible paths to take after graduating from ICT, we recommend that students take the course at KIT, which provides a continuous education system.
The KIT program consists of two years (3rd year and 4th year) of undergraduate school and two years of graduate school. During these four years, COOP education (practical career education in collaboration with industries and universities) is provided at a company in Japan or abroad for six months to one year. Overseas study programs are also available.

CDIO stands for Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate.
Realizing that the present education at engineering universities has been focusing on engineering science that has drifted away from practical engineering, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and three universities in Sweden established a project for the renovation of engineering education in 2000.
This project, called “CDIO Initiative,” has a commonly shared premise that engineering graduates should be able to “Conceive – Design – Implement – Operate complex value-added engineering systems in a modern, team-based engineering environment.” Universities all over the world that provide engineering education are being encouraged to join the project. In Japan, ICT joined in 2010 and KIT joined in 2011; they were the first Japanese institutions to join.
ICT’s educational missions are based on CDIO;

1. A curriculum that includes highly interwoven CDIO activities and mutually supporting courses
2. Integration of student projects created through the process of Design, Build and Test
3. An emphasis on active and experiential learning
4. Classrooms and laboratories furnished with advanced equipment
5. Constant improvement of the curriculum through an assessment process

It is a human-centered creative problem-solving method. Innovation is not the result of unexpected good luck or one genius; it is created by means of the process of Idea, Conceiving, Designing and Implementing through collaborative activities carried out by people seeking to create value. This method improves creativity, clarifies hidden problems that people do not become aware of by themselves, changes problems to actions, and creates higher customer value and new experiences for users.
In ICT’s engineering design education, students take the initiative in integrating various types of information such as regional and environmental information and social trends for their problem-solving project, and generate ideas with team members based on three factors: insight, observation and empathy. These activities foster thinking power.

The liberal arts for science and engineering are the fundamental cultural knowledge that scientists and engineers who will play a leading role in the global society should have.
The purpose of engineering design education is for students to find the best solution with a team through selection and integration of a variety of needs, information and scientific and technical knowledge. We strive to foster innovators who can keep pace with the rapid progress of science and technology while maintaining a strong sense of human values and a clear mission.
There are no right answers for assignments. Students will find their right answers while thinking through by themselves, and their answers will be integrated into the team’s answer. Science and engineering liberal arts are what we call the collected fundamental knowledge comprised of various competencies cultivated from these programs.

We develop the three competencies of insight, observation and empathy to clarify students’ inner needs, which even they are not aware of. This is done by means of design thinking, which leads to idea. Students practice conceiving and designing with a team. Through this process they acquire personal skills, interpersonal skills and system structuring knowledge and skills, while enhancing their competence through graded steps. This is the Project Based Learning (PBL) education offered at science and engineering universities.
As the core of education at ICT, engineering design education makes students realize the importance of knowledge, technology and competence. In addition, students understand the importance of teamwork, and become aware of what they are good at and what they are not good at. This awareness encourages them to carry out independent learning and teaching activities together.

The study program focused on mathematics and science is completed in two years rather than three years, which is how long it takes to complete at a normal high school. Accordingly, there are learning sessions from 7:30pm to 9:30pm every weekday from Monday to Friday. This is very important extracurricular study which all students are required to do in order to make sure they understand the lessons and participate in classes with a positive attitude.
Of course, teachers are present at the night school. However, the study is not an extension of classroom lessons. Students learn and teach as part of a team, and the teachers support them.
Since the lessons are carried out in English, language support is provided as needed. In addition, there are engineering design activities and team activities that students can participate in voluntarily and independently.

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. It was advocated by American Ex-President Obama as a type of education geared towards the rapidly progressing fields of science and technology.
This new educational system involves the comprehensive study in English of subjects such as Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Information, which have up until now been regarded as discrete subjects, as an integrated system. It allows students to acquire scientific thinking skills.
At ICT, we aim to give students an understanding of how knowledge of the STEM subjects is used in the education program of engineering design and extracurricular activities, and of how knowledge and skills are integrated.

KIT’s project design education focuses on active learning based on team-based problem-solving activities using knowledge that students have acquired so far. The themes used in this program range from familiar topics at the beginning to social topics, and then to later-year themes such as topics presented by companies and professional themes. The complexity and restrictions increase with each year of study.
Students are required to understand the three processes of “problem finding”, “solution finding” and “validation”, and how to use the methods and tools required for each process. Studying in a group of students from different disciplines allows students to think from multifaceted perspectives and deepen their thinking, which in turn helps them to work independently and implement the results of their thinking according to the flow of CDIO.
KIT has an original Project Based Learning (PBL) system involving “solution finding”, “solution implementation” and “validation of the efficacy of the solution”, which is carried out using knowledge and expertise that have been acquired through the program.

Engineering design education at ICT focuses on design-oriented thinking, and project design education at KIT focuses on CDIO. Both are team-based activity programs for the purpose of innovation.
The largest difference between these two educations is the concept of teams. ICT aims to foster the ability of students to think through group activities. Most of the activities are student-centered, but the participation of local residents and working people, who contribute their ideas, fosters a collaborative attitude and multifaceted perspectives among the students.
KIT focuses on developing students’ thinking skills through team-based activities in PD I and II of the first and second years. In the third and fourth years of the undergraduate school and the first and second years of the graduate school, PD III and IV are carried out based on Conceive (C) and Design (D), as well as Implement (I) and Operate (O), which take social implementation into consideration.
KIT promotes activities carried out by teams consisting of members who transcend the boundaries of generation, field of study and culture, which will be implemented in society. These activities include collaborative research with companies and problem-solving for local communities.

We define “global innovators” as personnel who will be in demand in the society of the near future. In order to produce global innovators, ICT and KIT are establishing the 5+4 school system.
There is no doubt that the society of the near future will be “global,” “highly information-oriented” and “knowledge-oriented”. It is also inevitable that artificial intelligence will lead to great innovative changes. In such a society, it is important to think and act by oneself. In addition, there will be a great demand for high-level thinking. The students’ ability to think is developed by means of Design Thinking. We feel it is effective for our education to start at the age of 15, when our students’ sensibility is at its peak. ICT produces graduates who can adapt to the society of the future and play an important role as a leader. KIT and its graduate school provide high-level education in combination with the ICT education program.

For science and mathematics, it is important to acquire the fundamental knowledge, because it will be necessary to study specialized fields and carry out detailed research. In addition, as preparation for English classes, please be sure to understand the curriculum that was covered in your three years of junior high school. Daily study is important. We also recommend that you read books written in English.

ICT aims to produce “global innovators” who will play a leading role as engineers in the global society.
ICT’s engineering design education includes design-oriented thinking and a new method that leads to innovation by CDIO. Students repeat 1) Insight, observation and empathy, 2) Innovation, 3) Conceive and 4) Design, and undergo training as innovators. In the near future, when globalization will accelerate, there will be a demand for innovators who are capable of cooperating with people of various cultures and with different values, and who can create new values.

In Engineering Context, students carry out activities to understand changes in scientific technology, which is progressing at an accelerated pace, the energy environment, the social environment, and the business environment in which we live. We strive to foster innovators who can keep pace with the rapid progress of science and technology while maintaining a strong sense of human values and a clear mission. Students also learn the significance of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), business design and entrepreneurship. The skills and ideas that are necessary to find optimum solutions are cultivated through case studies by means of integration and selection of diversified needs, information, and knowledge of science and technology. Fundamental study skills such as those required to record and report activities are also developed.
Students will use the knowledge and ideas that they will have acquired in Engineering Context to find and solve problems in engineering design.

At ICT, mathematics, science and engineering are taught in English. The Bridge English lessons are designed to help students understand their classes; they will be taught useful terminology and expressions.

In this course students are taught the computer literacy that is necessary for drawing, presentations and report-making; simulation of probability, statistics and modeling; fundamental programing using sensors and microcomputers; and fundamental knowledge and skills for web designing and application development for the transmission of information.
The skills and knowledge acquired in the classes are used for prototype-making and presentations in engineering design.

We do not specify a particular level of English proficiency such as the Eiken English Language Proficiency Test Grade pre-2 . It is our hope that junior high school students will be enthusiastic about learning English. Our objective is for students to have reached level 5.5 in IELTS (International English Language Testing System) before studying in New Zealand for their third year at ICT.

Students who do not speak Japanese will study Japanese as their second language as follows.
First year: Japanese IA (5 credits), Japanese IB (2 credits)
Second year: Japanese II (2 credits) in the first semester, Japanese communication (3 credits) in the second semester.
In addition, international students are expected to participate in various activities on and off campus. There are many opportunities to engage in Japanese cultural activities such as the tea ceremony, flower arrangement, martial arts, Japanese drum and Japanese music, and to experience regional life by participating in festivals, experiencing performing arts, making crafts, and going on study tours.

Courses in English language arts are available for international students and returnees; the classes are different from those for students who live in Japan and use Japanese in their daily lives. Students who do not speak Japanese will study Japanese in their second-language (foreign-language) classes.