A Bristol University student is one of only two UK students to be offered a place on the 10th Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) University summer school.

Greg Jones, who is studying for an MSc in International Relations in the Department of Politics, will join 38 students from Asia and Europe on a two-week programme.  It will give the students a unique opportunity to broaden their intellectual and cultural horizons in a multicultural environment.

The summer school will be held from 22 May to 5 June in Tokyo, Japan and is co-organised by ASEF and Keio University, Japan’s oldest private university.

The objectives of the summer school are:

• To provide an environment that encourages inter-cultural dialogue and appreciation.
• To establish a sustainable network among young students and scholars who have enormous potentials to become the future intellectual elite in Asia and Europe.

The theme of this year’s summer school is Enlarging European Union and Asia.  Lectures will be organised in two parts.  Part I comprises lectures on topics relating to Enlarging EU and the future of Europe and part II will cover Regional integration in Asia and Asia-Europe relations.

The summer school won’t be all work and students will have the opportunity to visit sites in Tokyo such as the Edo-Tokyo Museum, the historic district of Asakusa and the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation.  Students will also get a chance to attend a performance of the ancient Japanese art form of Kabuki.

Apart from exploring Tokyo, participants will visit the picturesque city of Kamakura, which lies southwest of Tokyo and was once the seat of Shogunate Japan.  There, students will visit shrines and stay overnight in a traditional Japanese guesthouse, or ryokan.  On their return to Tokyo, the students will also get a chance to see Hakone, a popular recreational area set against the spectacular Mount Fuji.