OYIS is pleased to announce this year’s Academic Scholarships will be starting soon.

These are a great opportunity for students – current and new – to be awarded significant discounts.

On Saturday January 20, we will be inviting students to take a series of tests that could result in a 100 per cent discount on tuition fees for the IB Diploma.

The tests are available to current students who will join Grade 11 in 2024/25 and new students thinking of joining us. It is also open to new students who are not currently in Japan – they can take the tests online.

While our aim is for all students to achieve their full potential, we are not only interested in grades. Part of the scholarship process also involves an interview with our school leaders. This helps us understand what students can contribute to the school – some students are natural leaders while others may be interested in running community projects, for example.

As a community-centred school, we also want to be as inclusive as possible. This is why we have community scholarships, based on financial need, later in the year. These help ensure we are able to offer a world-class education to a large number of students within the Kansai area.

As well as the chance to gain a scholarship at school, there are often opportunities for financial help when students apply to universities. We have a dedicated College and Careers’ Advisor who meets individually with students to find out what their dream careers are. We then work on finding out the most suitable pathway for them. At OYIS, we offer three pathways, which ensures nearly all students can graduate from high school.

We start with the IB Diploma, the most-recognised pre-university course in the world. This is a two-year course covering six subjects, plus what is known as the Core. We also offer the IB Course, which offers more flexibility. This can also cover up to six subjects but does not include all of the Core (which is made up of Creativity, Activity Service (CAS), Theory of Knowledge and the Extended Essay).

Our third pathway is the WASC-accredited high school diploma. Students still study IB subjects but do not take the final exams. Students on this pathway need to meet different requirements in order to graduate from high school.

In addition to this, we have started our college preparation much earlier. With help from UniFrog, our extended homerooms now feature time for all students from Grade 7 and above to begin thinking about their futures.

Overall, our goal is to help a wide range of students access OYIS and help them towards their ideal future pathway.

For more details on our academic scholarships, please go here.