Jiro Takano
・Tokai University Chancellor
Nurturing people who can be today’s leaders through a university reform that is responsive to society’s needs and faithful to its educational philosophy of the integration of the sciences.
The notion of preestablished harmony no longer holds up in today’s world where new knowledge, information and technology are becoming increasingly important as the foundations of society. These leaps in the importance of the new have caused globalization, paradigm shifts, and technological revolution to take place at unprecedented speeds. Accompanying these challenges to the notion of preestablished harmony, the type of person that society seeks has also seen remarkable shifts.
The University, which welcomes an extremely diverse body of students, has been the target of heightened expectations to deliver education and people who can benefit society. At present, what is being demanded of universities in general is the creation and implementation of curriculum that can produce people that can detect and quickly respond to societal transformations. Universities are also expected to regularly measure the effectiveness of its curriculum and propose measures for improvement. It is necessary for the university to have the ability and flexibility to dynamically realize these goals and to conduct university reform that is accompanied by a transformation in the consciousness of its faculty.
Tokai University was founded in 1942 and has since worked to imbue in its students, the importance of cultivating thought that can become the foundation for a broad perspective on life. This endeavor is expressed in the University’s founding educational philosophy which states, “If an individual has acquired deep insights into human nature, society, the natural world, historical processes, the world, and so on, he or she will be able to embrace high ideals and can lay the foundation for a deeper understanding of life.” Concretely, this mission manifests itself as the “Lecture on Modern Civilization,” which asks students to confront various problems facing modern civilization and to learn about how different thinkers responded to these complex issues. We have been able to nurture students with a comprehensive, multi-faceted and flexible world-view by taking an approach to education that integrates the sciences instead of being limited by the division between the humanities and the sciences. Further, at the “Student Project Center,” whose aim is to develop students’ ability to respond to practical problems in society, students, regardless of their school or department, work together on various projects. In the process of interacting with a diverse range of people, engaging in an exchange of ideas with their peers, and developing their projects together, students are able to develop the necessary skills and strength to make their way in contemporary society. At this university, these skills are expressed as group cooperation, perseverance and achievement, and embody the Center’s goal of nurturing people who can embark on new challenges without being limited by preexisting frameworks or conceptions.
With regards to research, innovative research is being conducted in fields as diverse as the humanities, the social sciences, the natural sciences, engineering, medicine, oceanography, and agriculture. These areas also collaborate with each other through an interdisciplinary approach and have succeeded in developing active research agendas that have provided valuable information to the world. Further, since its founding, the University, which has held as an ideal, the task of contributing to the ‘knowledge’ that was developed at the institution to society, has systematically promoted industry-academia-government collaboration, and has contributed greatly to innovation in key fields. Another important feature of Tokai University is international exchange. The University currently has Academic Exchange Agreements with 91 institutions in 31 countries and regions (as of 2009) and has actively pursued such exchanges in the realms of scholarly, cultural and sports exchange. We have conducted the dispatch and acceptance of exchange students though a system that provides scholarships and credit approval. In particular, the University’s long-standing exchanges with institutions in the former Soviet Union, Eastern European countries, support for the establishment of universities in the Kingdom of Thailand, and other contributions have been regarded highly by the international community.
In 2008, Tokai University integrated with Kyushu Tokai University and Hokkaido Tokai University and became a comprehensive university with 20 schools and 87 departments (as of 2009). Currently, students and faculty are hard at work to conduct university and educational reforms by 2012, the 70th anniversary of the University’s founding, by proposing new schools and departments and retooling existing ones, and conducting wide-ranging curriculum revisions in order to best nurture students that can emerge as today’s leaders.
The founder of Tokai University, Dr. Shigeyoshi Matsumae sent the following message to the youth: “Aim your hopes towards the stars in your early days.” The primary task of the University is to provide a space for all of you, its students, to gradually find your dreams as you conduct your studies, to work toward realizing those dreams and finally, to grow as a human being in the process. I sincerely believe that Tokai University can be this space for all of you.
