About 50% of high school graduates in Japan enroll in universities and colleges, but the enrollment rate of the hearing impaired is phenomenally lower: 16%.

Even when deaf students do manage to enroll in a school of higher education, it is often difficult for them to understand the courses without appropriate support.

Courses with sign language for deaf students are not generally available in colleges and universities in Japan. Therefore, these students are unable to take notes or put lectures into their laptops like others.

As a result, such individuals become isolated and cannot keep up with classes even if they are able to enter a university.

To solve these problems, The Nippon Foundation has implemented a project to support hearing-impaired students in higher education.

The project is being carried out in collaboration with the Japan College of Social Work, which has set up a project office to assist hearing impaired students who are new to the campus. They are offered support both within and outside classes as they make their adjustments to academic life.

Concretely, they are offered lectures conducted in Japanese sign language, for which they will receive official academic credits.

This system went into effect this April, at the start of the school year. Deaf students from other universities will also be able to earn credits from these courses.

At first, 13 courses will be offered in sign language, including economics, English language, and American sign language.

By introducing these Japanese sign language lectures from which students can earn credits, it is thought that a better learning environment will be created in which more deaf students will be encouraged to apply to universities.