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NEC R&D Doctor’s Pass

Supporting students’ advancement to doctorate program with a job offer and repayment of scholarship

March 27, 2023

In February 2023, NEC announced the NEC R&D Doctor’s Pass, which is its original system for supporting prospective employees’ education in a doctorate program. This system targets students of the Tokyo Institute of Technology who are enrolled in a master’s program. It aims to alleviate the graduates’ concerns about the economic burden of studying a doctorate program and future employment by presenting support for repayment of scholarship (up to 5.4 million yen) and an offer to join NEC after completing the doctorate program.

Overview of system

NEC R&D Doctor’s Pass is a program to support students’ research activities consisting of the following sub-programs.

1. Flexibility in job-hunting period for doctorate students

  • By acquiring an NEC R&D Doctor’s Pass, students are guaranteed a job offer from NEC Research & Development Division in the year they are scheduled for completion of the doctorate, which enables them to focus on research during their enrollment in the doctorate program without any concern for job-hunting.

2. Support program (Research internship and mentoring)

  • Up to the time of joining NEC, students will receive an opportunity to participate in corporate research activities in the form of paid summer research internships as well as to receive advice on research activities through mentorship of a senior employee mentor.

3. Support for repayment of scholarship (for those who wish)

  • If an eligible student is using a loan scholarship such as that offered by the Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO) during their enrollment in the doctorate program, provided that they meet the conditions specified by NEC, they can receive financial support for repaying the loan after employment (up to 5.4 million yen).

Flow of this program

From Human Resources staff in charge

We spoke with the Laboratories HR staff in charge of recruitment about the overview and purpose of this program.

Global Innovation Strategy Division

Naoko Kimura

This program offers financial support for repaying scholarships up to 5.4 million yen and a job offer to join NEC upon completing the doctorate program to eligible students who are currently enrolled in a master’s program and looking to proceed to a doctorate program. This program will be applied to candidates who have passed screening processes that involve examination of application documents and interviews. Currently, this program is only open to students of the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
This program was initiated as a measure to support students who otherwise have to give up on a doctorate due to financial reasons and help those concerned about employment upon completion of their doctorates.

Global Innovation Strategy Division

Takayuki Sato

NEC decided to support the repayment of scholarship instead of founding a new scholarship as a result of exploring and reviewing what students truly desire. Initially, we did consider setting up an NEC scholarship, but there are already many scholarships and loans available out there and quite a few students are already availing themselves of such scholarships and loans. In addition, the amount of support any individual student needs differs. So, we came to the conclusion that it would be best to have the students freely select the scholarships or loans suited to their own situations and we keep our support to helping with repayments.
After a student is approved for this program, NEC will continue its support until the student completes the doctorate program. This support includes the assignment of a young NEC researcher as a mentor to each of the successful applicants to provide advice and guidance for research in graduate school. Successful applicants will also participate in paid research internships during the summer to help get acquainted with corporate research.
The first NEC employees to be employed through this new NEC R&D Doctor‘s Pass scheme will be joining us in a few years. While this is our first attempt, we hope to have many applicants and look forward to seeing you in the future.

Message from Senior Vice President Yamada

I am responsible for the R&D Division. The R&D Division serves the mission of continuously turning out technologies that form the backbone of future businesses. The Division operates a total of 12 laboratories in the Group: 6 in Japan and another 6 abroad. We have many students joining us every year to work together on our vision of social transformation. The very nature of research for future businesses makes having cutting-edge knowledge and skills essential for those who engage in such activities. Researchers with doctorates are highly advanced technical experts who have passed strict screening and are familiar with how to conduct research and development. NEC seeks to catch up with the overseas ratio of Ph.D recruitment—which is currently around 50% in Japan―and as part of such efforts, this program aims to dispel prospective doctorate students’ concerns for employment and future careers while also providing financial support. We hope to see many applicants making active use of this program to do world-leading research in graduate school and use that expertise to achieve social changes together with us at NEC.

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