Newcastle's newest university has welcomed its first group of Japanese students.
Sixteen Tokyo-based students from Nihon University touched down in Australia on Saturday and took a quick tour of the Newcastle coastline on Sunday before settling in to their new accommodation at the former Newcastle Court House in Church Street.
They received a beach safety lesson from Newcastle Surf Life Saving Club members and were thrilled to spot a pod of dolphins among the waves.
The students will spend three months in Newcastle continuing their studies, improving their English and collaborating with University of Newcastle undergraduates.
Mona Kashimi, a 21-year-old film student from Aichi prefecture in central Japan, said she was looking forward to meeting Australian students.
"Newcastle University is one of the top universities in the world," she said.
Roma Shiozaki, a third-year economics student from Shizuoka, said he was looking forward to experiencing Australian culture for the first time.
Nihon University, a privately run institution with about 75,000 undergraduates, bought the historic court building in 2017 for $6.6 million and embarked on a $41 million overhaul.
The project included two new four-storey buildings on either side of the 1890s court house, including classrooms, a residential building and a cafeteria.
Building work finished in September 2021, but the Japanese government continued discouraging universities from sending students overseas due to the COVID-19 pandemic until this year.
The first cohort of Nihon students in Newcastle is testing out the campus, which can cater for up to 100 students on three-month rotations.
University of Newcastle has signed a collaboration agreement with Nihon which has resulted in academic visits and a cross-cultural "buddy" program also involving the University of Waikato.
