In accordance with the School Education Act, NIAD-QE is the only institution, other than universities, authorized to confer degrees in Japan. To date, NIAD-QE has awarded degrees to more than 91,000 individuals.

Presidential Award Ceremony is a system of commendations that recognizes a select number of Bachelor’s degree recipients who have demonstrated great diligence and commitment to lifelong learning. The system was launched in FY 2017 as ROKUSHU Presidential Award, in Japanese, Kikocho ROKUSHU Sho (where ‘ROKU’ refers to the color green of our institutional logo symbolizing hope and ‘SHU’ means outstanding commitment to lifelong learning).

This year, President Fukuda awarded Ms. Aoyama, one of the Bachelor’s degree recipients in FY2020, ROKUSHU Presidential Award. Receiving the award, Ms. Aoyama expressed her delight and gratitude. Due to COVID-19, the Presidential Award Ceremony and the interview with Ms. Aoyama took place remotely on September 16.

During the interview, Ms. Aoyama frankly exchanged with the academic staff members about what led her to pursue her degree and her inspiration to focus on her studies as non-degree student. She commented with a smile, “Every day was filled with excitement to discover and embrace the joy of learning something new.” President Fukuda and the faculty members were impressed with her, and the interview offered a valuable opportunity.

NIAD-QE accepts applications to this system of awarding Bachelor’s degree twice a year, in April and October. Application forms are available from our Japanese page. For information on the procedures for applying and obtaining degrees in English, click here.

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Message from Award Recipients

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AOYAMA Kazumi（Preliminary qualification: Type 1, Major field of study: Science）

I am deeply honored to receive the Presidential Award. I am grateful for this special recognition of my courage and determination I made shortly before the age of fifty in pursing my studies with students that are around my child’s age. After graduating high school, I was not able to move on to university for financial reasons. Ever since then, I have always wanted to save up and go to university on my own. What encouraged me to finally take action was my eagerness to study biomarkers for prevention of death from overwork. As my goal to pursue graduate studies to become a researcher became clear, I thoroughly went over high school subjects. I first thought about going to university to complete a Bachelor’s degree in four years. When I found out that NIAD-QE’s system for the awarding of Bachelor’s degree (Scheme I) would enable me to go on to graduate school in minimum of two years, I decided to take courses as non-degree student. Looking back, I can say that the doors to learning are always open to anyone who has a clear vision of what they want to achieve through studying, regardless of age. Getting my Bachelor’s degree is only a step forward and there is still a long way to go. I will keep doing my best to pursue my graduate studies to become a researcher.

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