University–school partnerships for inclusive international admissions and student readiness: Evidence from a Japanese national university

• Examines partnerships between a leading Japanese national university and overseas high schools. • Identifies key factors underpinning sustainable cross-border educational collaboration, particularly in preparatory programmes. • Proposes evidence-based strategies to strengthen international student recruitment and support. This study examines how a Japanese national university leverages sustained university–school partnerships in East and Southeast Asia to develop a more inclusive international admissions pathway and enhance student readiness prior to matriculation. Using a comparative qualitative case study design, we triangulate semi-structured interviews with partner school educators and participating students with programme documents and administrative records. The findings suggest that partnership-based recommendations and holistic reviews can reduce reliance on standardised subject testing and travel-intensive examinations, thereby widening access for high-achieving students across diverse educational contexts. Crucially, the admissions pathway is coupled with structured preparatory education and dedicated liaison roles that align expectations across institutions, scaffold linguistic and academic readiness, and support social integration. Within these readiness infrastructures, intercultural competence is conceptualised as early intercultural engagement embedded in everyday academic participation and peer networks, rather than as a standalone outcome. Although the evidence base is limited and the findings are intended for analytical transfer rather than statistical generalisation, the study distils actionable design principles for institutions seeking to advance equitable internationalisation by integrating partnership-based admissions with structured readiness provision.