About NIFS
Introduction
NIFS stands for "Fostering Human Resources in New Interdisciplinary Fields in the Society 5.0 Era". That is a special graduate program for international students, starting in 2024, of the Graduate School of Information Sciences (GSIS), Tohoku University, based on support from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan. That inherits and evolves our previous program "AIQDS", described on the website here.
The purpose of NIFS is to develop international human resources with comprehensive skills in solving real-world problems collaboratively with different disciplines or sectors, and inducing innovations for sustainable economic development, and shaping the Society 5.0 era. To do so, NIFS offers the students various lectures, exercises and project-based learnings in broad information sciences that involve data science together with economics, psychology, philosophy, and sciences of materials, aging, artificial intelligence etc. Moreover, NIFS also offers some subjects specialized in innovation and entrepreneurship. For the curriculum in detail, see the Student Handbook 2025 (pp. 98–103).
The classes associated with NIFS are mainly in English, while the students are also encouraged to get familiar with Japanese language and culture, and to build various human networks.
Enrollment in GSIS
Every student of NIFS must be also enrolled in GSIS, and supervised by a professor in GSIS. In addition to diplomas of GSIS, the student may earns diplomas of NIFS, of which there are the following two types:
| [M+D] | 2-year Master's course and 3-year Doctoral course |
| [D] | 3-year Doctoral course |
In either [M+D] or [D], the diploma of NIFS will be awarded upon completion of the doctoral course, and the intention to complete it is required for admission to NIFS. The acceptance for [D] of NIFS includes the acceptance for the doctoral course of GSIS. The acceptance for [M+D] of NIFS includes the acceptance for the master's course of GSIS, but NOT the advanced acceptance for the doctoral course. Thus, for continueing [M+D], the student has to fulfill certain academic requirements in the master's course, and pass the entrance examination for the doctoral course of GSIS.
Financial Support
Application for NIFS is tied together with application for MEXT scholarship. By passing the selection process completely, an applicant obtains both admission to NIFS and MEXT scholarship. Even by passing it incompletely, a highly qualified applicant possibly obtains admission to NIFS as a self-funded student. The scholarship covers the following:
- Refund of application fee, and exemption from entrance and tuition fees
- Flight tickets between Japan and the applicant's country of nationality
- Monthly stipend:
- 146,000 JPY for the 2 years of master's course in [M+D]
- 147,000 JPY for the 3 years of doctoral course in [D]
As for the 3 years of doctoral course in [M+D], we hope some financial supports, but can NOT guarantee anything at present. For more details, please refer to the application guidelines of NIFS here and MEXT here.