Since academic year 2020, Sophia Global Education and Discovery Co., Ltd. (Sophia GED), an educational company operated by Sophia School Corporation in Bangkok, Thailand, has been advancing Sekai-Tankyu-bu, an online research and investigation program for high school students that aims to create a bridge between high school and university education.

Program overview
A 10-month program in which university faculty members and researchers work closely with high school students to deepen their inquiry-based learning. The program focuses on creating a feeling of elation and excitement and participating high school students choose their own theme from a wide variety of global topics and then investigate and write a paper on it. It provides students with an opportunity to connect to the wider world, discover their own interests, and to find an individual style of learning that will help them in university and beyond. It is a program developed from a longer-term perspective that creates a bridge between high school and university education by connecting high school students to university through deeper learning with a view to their future.

[Program features]
・Provides an experience of the entire research process, from setting questions to writing a paper. Over 10 months, the high school students experience the entire research process, from setting questions through to researching a topic, analyzing their findings, and writing a paper. Themes are varied and can include questions inspired by curiosity about other cultures, interest in the SDGs
or social issues, or by the student’s own experiences. By thoroughly investigating a topic that they set themselves, the students broaden their knowledge and interests while also growing their ability to learn in a structured manner.
・ Leverages Sophia GED’s strengths as a global center for university-based research and education. Activities aimed at supporting the research by the high school students include group lectures given by university faculty members on research methods and topics concerning international society, regular individual consultations with a university staff member or researcher, guidance on writing papers, the arrangement of surveys in Japan or overseas, and other types of implementation support. We are working with the high school students to carry out practical inquiry-based learning by providing full-scale support that leverages the resources and environments of the university and its overseas centers and that is entirely online.

2. Future plans
Sophia GED will leverage its position as a university backed education business company to explore and further develop high school-university bridge education through the implementation of the program. We want to continue working with high school students on initiatives based on such inquiry-based learning to deepen the future learning capabilities of high school students, as well as to enhance the university as a place of learning, by creating various horizontal and vertical connections and then deriving diversified educational opportunities from these connections.