The National Information Center for Academic Recognition Japan (NIC-Japan) held a series of NIC-Japan seminars entitled "Foreign Education Systems and Higher Education Qualifications" (Vietnam and Indonesia) in December 2021.

As part of its activities to provide information that contributes to the smooth recognition of higher education qualifications for the purpose of improving the international mobility of students and academics, NIC-Japan has been holding the "NIC-Japan Seminar Series" from this fiscal year onwards, in which experts from Japan and overseas discuss various topics related to recognition of foreign qualifications, such as education systems in other countries and examples of credential evaluation.

Following the first two seminars (on Republic of Korea and Mongolia) in July 2021, the second two seminars were held online on December 6 (Monday) and December 21 (Tuesday) regarding Vietnam and Indonesia, respectively. The lecture on Vietnam was given by Ms. Tran Thi Ngoc Bich, Director of the Vietnam National Academic Recognition Information Centre (VN-NARIC), which recognizes foreign qualifications and provides educational information in Vietnam, along with two VN-NARIC experts. The lecture on Indonesia was given by Prof. Dr. Aris Junaidi, Director of Student and Learning Affairs, Directorate General of Higher Education, Research and Technology, Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology, Republic of Indonesia. The seminar series was attended by approximately 250 participants (including both sessions), mainly faculty and staff members involved in international affairs at universities and other institutions, who enthusiastically engaged in Q&A session following the lectures.

The aim of each seminar was to deepen participants' understanding of the education system in the subject country. Each lecturer gave an outline of each country's education system, education qualifications, higher education entrance requirements, and their peculiar education systems, as well as trends in higher education from the viewpoint of the lecturers. Ms. Tran Thi Ngoc Bich and the experts of VN-NARIC spoke about procedure of recognition of foreign qualifications in VN-NARIC and response against fake higher education institutions/diplomas from the standpoint of recognizing foreign qualifications in Vietnam, along with education system and higher education quality assurance. Also, based on his career as a director of quality assurance department, Prof. Dr. Aris Junaidi talked about "DIECU cycle" the basic idea of internal quality assurance and current state of accreditation, along with education system.

Both seminars were held successfully, concluding with a thanks to the lecturers for their thought-provoking lecture and the Q&A session from Dr. Taiji Hotta, Executive Director of NIC-Japan, who served as the moderator.

Furthermore, the materials used in this seminar series can be downloaded from the following links.
"The Vietnamese Education System and Higher Education Qualifications (December 6, 2021)" *October 24, 2022: Minor revision on the material
"The Indonesian Education System and Higher Education Qualifications (December 21, 2021)"
In addition, the announcement page during registration period for the seminars can be viewed here.

Lecturers (Left: upper left Ms. Tran Thi Ngoc Bich/ upper right Ms. Pham Khanh Huyen/ bottom Ms. Le Thu Huong, Right: Prof. Dr. Aris Junaidi)