On September 8, 2023, Prof. Dr. Arya Kumar (Senior Professor and Dean of Alumni Relations) of the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani in India visited Hiroshima University (HU) for an intensive course. During his visit, he made a courtesy call to Executive Vice President in charge of Global Initiatives Shinji Kaneko. Associate Professor of HU, Dr. Sonoko Watanabe (the IDEC Institute), was also in attendance. During the meeting, opinions were exchanged on topics such as the possibility of HU students participating in the diverse entrepreneurship education program that BITS offers.

Since BITS was established in the year 1964, it has developed as a university that carries out a wide variety of higher education programs, from the humanities to engineering. Currently it has four campuses, all of which have an International Programmes and Collaboration Division (IPCD), and has been furthering its relations with well-known educational institutions overseas. In September 2021, Dr. Arya Kumar first held the intensive course entitled, “Idea Mining Workshop” (a workshop about creating proposals for starting a business, as well as a common course in the Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering) at HU. This marks his third time holding the course.

HU has signed 22 inter-university international exchange agreements with 15 institutions and 9 inter-faculty agreements with 9 institutions in India. Currently, there are 23 students from India studying in HU. This courtesy visit is expected to promote further exchange with BITS as well as other universities and educational institutions in India.