Dad Sensei

Stories from an African Student in Japan can easily be drawn from any angle, but as a scientist let me stick to what could be an input to Universities of emerging markets.

Japan's university academic structure is different from the African and western models of education. Albeit, they offer lectures where a Professor stands in front of a class and explains, course-works and exams  like any university in the World,there is one unique difference "The Sensei" .

Sensie: is a Japanese word that literary translates to " a person born before/experienced than another".

At a University, every student has a Sensei, and the Sensei is the Supervisor of the student's final dissertation project. A Student is assigned or chooses a Sensei right from the start of his/her academic program, and will be under that Sensei's main supervision for his/her entire university program. This does not exclude, the particular student to receive lectures, tests and guidance from other Professors. Up-to now, I guess it looks exactly the way you know it elsewhere in the world's University programs.
Borrowing from a personal experience studying at a Japanese University, a Sensei is much more than just lectures, your Sensei will;

1. Offer personalized career guidance: Forget about the Auditorium based "Career guidance" structures where a prominent person is invited to offer a lecture of how they made it and that's it. A Sensei, will spare time out of their busy schedules to have a cup of coffee with you (student) regularly and together explore what careers, the future holds.

2. Act as a big brother/ big sister: Leaving the Class issues aside, your Sensei might as well invite you for a coffee, give you a lift to a park or even help you discover a price friendly shop. Do not get shocked if when your internet jams at your 10km away apartment from the university,and your Sensei voluntarily drives to your apartment to fix it for you free of charge (of-course).
Up-to now, I still can not believe it or figure out how, despite my Sensei's extremely busy schedules that involves things like reviewing research papers,business trips,supervision of PHD students' research papers, or working on a complex cloud based solution for over 10 hospitals, he will still find time to drive me to an awesome shopping area.

Carrying my luggage in my Sensei's Car

3.Act as a mentor: A Sensei designs 2 Dimensional academic programs, 1-the usual fundamental joint class work material and 2-personalized material that drives each student to realizing their individual dreams.
This is extremely important!, whereas back in the days it was okay for all students in a class to study a particular domain and have a common understanding, Today's world demands extreme creativity and high levels of specialization. You must be extremely good at something otherwise, you will never find a job or be useful to your community.

The one shoe fits all days are gone. If its a Computer Science class, some students have interests in Data Mining, Cryptography or Web-Application development. Whereas all computer science students should take fundamentals of computer science as in Academic Curriculum says, a Sensei will carry an extra effort to offer side insights/books to read/references/new tricks to the students that match their different interests.

4:Keep class environment as friendly as a home: From Universal Primary Education in Uganda through First ranked secondary schools to modern University classrooms in Africa, a typical classroom always has only about 4 items (chalks/computers-students-lecture and furniture.) but in Japan's classrooms there is something extra.
Only in Japan, will a Sensei, give you a break time and cut for you some fruits, offer some snacks or make for you a cup of coffee or surprise you with a Halloween Cake. Much as some people might claim that fruits and chocolates are for kindergarten, such small things mean a lot in terms of psychology (if I borrow recent Mark Zuckerberg's psychology behind 1-T-Shirt). An apple shared with classmates, psychologically relieves a mind that has been cracking "a triple integral maths calculation" and replaces the "lost energy/dead cells".

5:Strive to build an academic relationship with his/her students:A Sensei will consequently develop a Dad-like relationship with his/her students. Sensei regularly asks each of his/her students to present about anything, or how they are doing over their usual life and more.

Conclusion:
Doing all the above 5 items is not stipulated in a Sensei's contract with a university, it is a culture.
This is a culture, worth borrowing a leaf from.

Such a culture builds a strong bond between the Sensei and his/her students, similar to the "Dad-Son" or "Mum-Daughter" bond, to the extent that a student ends up working extremely hard to succeed so as not to disappoint/spoil the bond.

Anyway, I do not need to detail what such a bond can lead to, since if I tell you to pose and look around you,you will either read "Toyota, Toshiba, Sony, Panasonic brand or an article about a Japanese Nobel Laureate .

Dutahe!!!!