The diversity of APU can be seen from a variety of angles.
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Since its opening, APU has taken in students from 136 countries and regions*, with its student body representing between 75 to 85 countries and regions at any given time.
By 2023, the university will realize an overwhelmingly multinational learning environment whose students represent over 100 countries and regions at any given time.
*As of May 2015
As of 2014, 44.0% of the entire student body at APU was comprised of international students. That amounts to nearly out of every two students at the university.
Another defining characteristic of APU is that a sizeable majority of its students, or 98.0%, are degree students (such as undergraduate students who are enrolled in the university for a four-year period with the intention of pursuing a degree, as opposed to non-degree students such as those in short-term study-abroad programs that last for about a year).
By learning and living together for a four-year period, students at APU engage in friendly academic rivalry, broaden their network across the world, and outfit themselves with a true international sense.
Currently, the percentage of all faculty members at APU who are foreign nationals and/or have acquired a degree at an overseas university amounts to approx. 85%. By 2023, the university will elevate that percentage to approx. 90%. Additionally, at 48.5% of all faculty, the large number of faculty members belonging to APU who are foreign nationals is another trait of the university.
As of AY2013, the ratio of students at APU who had foreign friends from ten or more countries or regions was 12.0%. The university has adopted the goal of bringing that figure to 100% by 2023 by leveraging its multicultural and multilingual environment, a rarity even by global standards.
100
At present, the percentage of trilingual students at APU who can speak a third language in addition to Japanese and English is 40%. The university aims to have 70% of its students acquire working knowledge of three languages by the year 2023. Since its opening, APU has committed itself to offering classes in a range of Asia Pacific languages (Chinese, Korean, Malay/Indonesian, Spanish, Thai and Vietnamese). Through study in these classes and exchange with students who originate from the countries and regions where those languages are used, APU will elevate the practical working knowledge of its students in those languages.
Global Alumni Lectures incorporate the areas of specialization, experience, networks and other elements of the over-13,000 APU alumni who are active around the world into the curriculum of the university to establish new courses. This affiliation and cooperation with alumni manifest themselves in the education of existing APU students in other ways as well, such as through the development of new educational materials or the conducting of internships.
APU is a multicultural microcosm of society where diverse values coexist. Be that as it may, it is the position of the university that its Japanese students, which account for about half of the student body, also gain experience with foreign cultures away from Japan. For that purpose, APU will develop various programs and conduct other similarly-minded endeavors with the aim of having all of its Japanese students take part in initiatives to help them gain experience overseas by 2023.
In endeavoring to enhance the quality of education that transcends simple “multicultural exchange,”
APU will aim to become a university that is both “recognized” and “chosen” globally.
