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:

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. Particularly excellent ones in the successful applicants for NIFS will be selected for MEXT scholarship.

For 2-year master's course + 3-year doctoral course:

Number of nomination slots: 4

The scholarship covers the following:

• Exemption from application, admission and tuition fees
• Monthly stipend: 146,000 JPY for 2 years in master's course
• Flight tickets between the applicant's country of nationality and Japan

For more details, please refer to the application guideline of MEXT here.

Note: The MEXT scholarship requires an extension application when proceeding to the 3-year doctoral course. The decision to grant the extension will be made by the MEXT based on factors including academic performance during the master's course. So kindly note that there is no guarantee of getting the MEXT scholarship for your doctoral course.

For applicants enrolling in October 2026, the scholarship extension slots usually applicable when proceeding to the doctoral course have not yet been granted to our university at the moment. Therefore, please be advised that there is a high possibility of becoming a self-funded student after proceeding to the doctoral course. However, our university offers the Tuition Fee Waiver system. Please consider applying for it as one option, though we cannot guarantee the result of your application. For more information about the Tuition Fee Waiver system, please refer to the following page.

For 3-year doctoral course:

Number of nomination slots: a few

The scholarship covers the following:

• Exemption from application, admission and tuition fees
• Monthly stipend: 147,000 JPY for 3 years in doctoral course
• Flight tickets between the applicant's country of nationality and Japan

For more details, please refer to the application guideline of MEXT here.