Strengthening distance education through high school and university collaboration and promoting recurrent education

This project aims to strengthen distance education for high school students, spread advanced education, and promote recurrent education for working adults, by expanding the University of Tokyo's "Friday Special Lectures for High School and University Students" (Friday Lectures). The Friday Lectures are mainly offered to high school and first- and second-year university students with the aim of promoting "education for career choices" that links basic education up to high school and specialized education from university. The content of this course is also suitable for the recurrent education for working people. Since its inception in 2002, the course has been offered more than 400 times, and in 2004, it began to be distributed online to high schools nationwide in real time. Students can also participate in the post-lecture question and answer sessions online. During the state of emergency in the spring of 2020, classes were offered online only, and thousands of high school students attended from their homes. Today, the program is available to more than 330 high schools from Hokkaido to Okinawa (6.8% of all high schools in Japan). We believe this kind of initiative is rare and represents a new form of education in the era of Society 5.0.

• Munehito Arai, "Friday Special Lectures for High School and University Students - For Young People Who Are Troubled by Choice of Career," The University of Tokyo Komaba Style, pp. 44-45 (ed. College of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo), The University of Tokyo Press, 2019 (in Japanese)
• Looking at the Root of Life, (ed. College of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo), Hakusuisha, 2020 (in Japanese)
• Listening to Different Voices, (ed. College of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo), Hakusuisha, 2020 (in Japanese)
• Living in a Divided Age, (ed. College of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo), Hakusuisha, 2017 (in Japanese)
• Walking on the Forefront of Science, (ed. College of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo), Hakusuisha, 2017 (in Japanese)