Japanese Student Success - High School to MBA - Book Reviews

Reviews




Title: Japanese Student Success
High School to MBA - Australia
Author: Peter Hanami
Pages: 120
Purchase at: JapaneseCustomer.com





1. Reviewed by Nena Johnston


Student success -– how do we measure it? Is it by learning outcomes or exam results? For his research report, ‘Japanese Student Success: High School to MBA, Australia’, Peter Hanami tracked seven Japanese students to evaluate their educational experience in Victoria, and how this experience helped them to succeed in life beyond the classroom. One student from each of the following areas was tracked: a High school, TAFE, private VET, an English language school, Foundation Course, and undergraduate and postgraduate studies at university.


This was a clearly-constructed report with interesting case studies, and the kind of positive results we all like to hear. Although the research focused on Japanese students in the Victorian educational landscape, many of the findings could apply to other cultural groups studying in other states. Hanami concludes that tracking students and documenting their success should be used as a powerful marketing tool to promote services and raise the profile of study in Victoria in the international market.


Nena Johnston teaches ESL to migrants at Central TAFE, Perth, Western Australia.

Review was published in the "Australian TAFE Teacher ", Spring 2006. Australia



2. Review by Dr. Alison Broinowski

"In the dark ages, but in living memory, overseas students were welcomed to Australia with a dutiful drinks party or a barbecue and then sent off to International House, a host family in the suburbs, or a rented room with a landlady from hell, and expected to get on with it.

Things have improved a lot, but surveys of overseas student experiences still tend to concentrate on the negative. Australia attracts nearly 10 times as many foreign students as Japan does, and the overseas education industry is worth $A 7.5 billion, so we must be getting something right. On the other hand the retention rate – students who complete their courses – is only just over half.

Japanese student numbers are growing. They consider Australia a less challenging place to study than the United States, mainly because of the attractions of lifestyle. But Victoria, in spite of its reputation for intellectual and cultural leadership, comes third after New South Wales and Queensland in attracting Japanese students.

To find out why, and what can be done about it, Peter Hanami has chosen an unconventional approach, concentrating not on problems encountered by students, but on what makes Japanese students at various levels, in a range of Victorian institutions, successful .

His recommendations for preparing Japanese students better for their ‘life-changing’ experience in Australia, and his clear-eyed identification of the factors that deliver success, will be of wide interest to students, parents, and educators in Victoria, as well as in other Australian states, and in Japan".

Concise, readable, and clearly set out".




Dr. Alison Broinowski
Author of The Yellow Lady: Australian Impressions of Asia 1992, About Face: Asian Accounts of Australia 2003 , PhD, visiting fellow at Australian National University and the University of New South Wales . Alison was Director, of the Australia-Japan Foundation, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australian Government .1987 -1988.





3. Review by Mr. Rawdon Dalrymple

"There is paucity of research that examines the positive experiences of international students...Research that throws light on how students benefit from their experience, and then subsequently apply that experience, is therefore very welcome...Your work is useful in helping to fill a substantial gap in our understanding..It is also useful to learn more about the factors that motivate individual Japanese students to study in Australia"




AO, Rawdon Dalrymple is now a visiting Professor in the Department of Government at the University of Sydney where he teaches courses in International Relations. He is also Chairman of the ASEAN Focus Group Pty Ltd. He has published articles in journals in Australia and the United States and writes a monthly column in a leading Japanese newspaper. He was the Australian Ambassador to Japan 1989-1993




4. Review by Yuki Yamamoto


“Hanami has undertaken a very detailed investigation of the Japanese student market and has revealed the essence of what it is like to be a Japanese international student. His insights will impact how schools recruit Japanese students because he shares what Japanese students value”



Yuki Yamamoto.
Is the CEO of East West Clinic, Victoria, Australia.