Attracting Students to Power Areas under the Competitive Environment of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Bioscience

In Japan, the population of high school post graduates has been steadily declining, and also, the number of student applicants for engineering programs has been declining. ... In this paper, we describe what kinds of measures have been taken at the Power System Laboratory at Waseda University in order to attract students to power areas under the competitive environment of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Bioscience. Additionally, the importance of the course titled "Power systems engineering" as the first course is addressed in reference to the future development of deregulation of the power industry and the escalated use of renewable energy. Cooperation with power utilities and a university-industry consortium are emphasized as ways to attract good students to power areas. Finally, bilingual education in Japanese and English, and also students\´ presentations overseas are shown to modernize power system education.