(From left) Super 30 founder Anand Kumar greets Takako Hayashi, Shivani Gopalkrishna, Hiroshi Yoshino and Jonathan Woodward on Wednesday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Super 30 students aspiring to enter the IITs can also get an opportunity to study in the University of Tokyo.

On Wednesday, a team from the Japanese university visited the Super 30 centre in Patna and spoke to Anand Kumar, its founder. They requested him to make arrangements to ensure that students from the training institute can go to the varsity to study.

The team led by Hiroshi Yoshino, director, University of Tokyo, India operations, interacted with the students.

On the Bihar visit, director Yoshino said: “As part of developing the University of Tokyo as a global campus, we have launched a new undergraduate English programme. We want more students from India, especially Bihar — the land of Buddha — to study at the university.”

At present, the number of international students at different Japanese universities is around 1.4 lakh. The Japanese government plans to increase it to 3 lakh. Indian students account for just around 500 among the list of 1.4 lakh pupils. Around 42 Indians study at the University of Tokyo, popularly known as Todai in Japan.

Yoshino said: “This year, the university administration has decided to admit around 100 students from India. In this direction, we want at least two students from Super 30 to join the varsity.”

He added that the varsity wants to give preference to girl students too, as according to Buddhist literature and Jataka stories, Sujata had offered Siddhartha milk-rice before he attained enlightenment.

Ravish Kumar, one of the Super 30 students, said: “It will be a dream come true for us if we get an opportunity to study at a top Japanese university.”

Students can apply for admission to two programmes — Japan & East Asia and environmental science — at the University of Tokyo. Both are interdisciplinary subjects.

The varsity administration has announced 100 per cent scholarship to one-third of the students taking admission in the two courses based on merit.

Anand Kumar said: “After guiding my students to clear IIT entrance exams, my priority will be to prepare them to join select foreign universities, including Todai.”