Solving Problems in an Attempt to Revive a Short-Term Study Abroad Program after the COVID-19 Pandemic

This paper reports how the author has been coping with the problems in his attempt to revive in 2023 the short-term study abroad program “English Language and Academic Programme at the University of Cambridge” for Kyushu University students established in 1996, which was held in the summer of 2019 and has been suspended thereafter due to the worldwide surge of COVID-19 pandemic. / In addition to the fact that the nature of the reasons for the suspension has left extremely little chance of quick return to normal operation, the staff of this program or, for that matter, any other comparable programs has also encountered a serious financial predicament in which they have been facing threefold difficulties of 1) the wide discrepancy between Japan and the UK in the consumer price increase rate during the pandemic, 2) the skyrocketing airfares ascribable to the sharp drop in the number of passengers due to the pandemic and the increased fuel cost caused by the detour avoiding the Russian airspaces, and 3) recent depreciation of JPY against GBP (or almost all foreign currencies). As a result of his endeavor, however, the author has obtained a large amount of donation from a benefactor on the condition that it is a one-time contribution for the participants and the accompanying staff of his program. Finding that even this handsome endowment is not substantial enough to cover the stipend for the participants until everything gets back to normal, the author embarked on a crowdfunding campaign supported by Kyushu University and Readyfor. This campaign, thanks to the enormous assistance and donation from various individuals including participants in the past, has collected a large amount of money, which, together with the donation from the benefactor above, may perhaps last until the retirement age of the author, namely for another six years. / Moreover, the author, after a long research, has found it to be possible to set up an insurance scheme to compensate for a possibly extravagant financial burden on the participants in the case that they are forced to pay the whole fee designated on the contract for the program when the program is cancelled by the Japanese government’s ban on the visit to the UK due to a surge of some new virus there, which could happen on the basis of the contract as long as the UK is open to the participants. If this scheme were impossible, the future participants might be confronted with a serious tragedy. / Finally, the author hopes that the programme at Cambridge or any other similar short-term overseas programs of Japanese colleges and universities will be brought back to their pre-COVID-19 operation in a smooth and problem-free manner with what little help this report may offer.