Fifth UTokyo Strategic Partnership Symposium

Date of activity: March 7, 2019

The Fifth UTokyo Strategic Partnership Symposium was held in the Koshiba Hall, Hongo Campus on Thursday, March 7, 2019. Members from UTokyo’s strategic partnership universities and other Japanese universities selected for MEXT’s Top Global University Project attended the symposium along with faculty, staff, and students from UTokyo. There were more than 100 participants at the symposium.
 
UTokyo has been organizing cross-departmental projects called the “Strategic Partnerships UTokyo” with a select number of overseas partner universities since October 2014. These relationships are designed to promote diverse and interdisciplinary research and educational exchanges by taking advantage of the strength of each university as well as integrating existing activities in each department or field.
 
After Executive Vice President Haneda’s opening greeting, Prof. Hideaki Shiroyama (Graduate School of Public Policy and Law and Politics, UTokyo), Prof. Satoshi Watanabe (Graduate School of Engineering, UTokyo), Prof. Takeshi Tange (Dean, Graduate School and Faculty of Agriculture, UTokyo) and Prof. Takehiko Kitamori (Graduate School of Engineering, UTokyo) made presentations regarding UTokyo’s ongoing collaborations with select universities located in Asia. The Keynote Speech titled “Globalising universities: an Australian perspective” was delivered by Prof. Jenny Corbett (Rio Tinto Fellow, Foundation for Australia-Japan Studies; Emeritus Professor and Former Pro Vice-Chancellor, Australian National University). Afterwards, Prof. Yujin Yaguchi (Director of the International Education Support Office, Division for Global Campus Initiatives, UTokyo) shared the situation and challenges related to student mobility to and from Asia and Oceania.
 
This was followed by a panel discussion “How can UTokyo work together with Asian Universities?” with Prof. Masashi Haneda (Executive Vice President, UTokyo) moderating the discussion with the five panelists: Prof. Jong-Ho Jeong (Dean, Graduate School of International Studies, Seoul National University), Prof. Jenny Corbett, Prof. Naoto Sekimura (Vice President and Deputy Director General of the Division for Global Campus Initiatives, UTokyo), Prof. Takehiko Kitamori, and Prof. Shigeto Sonoda (Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, UTokyo). The discussion covered a wide variety of topics including language barriers, student and faculty incentives, university strength and local knowledge, categorization of partner universities, and university strategies.
 
The symposium was a great opportunity to exchange experiences and ideas regarding strengthening collaboration with Asian institutions, and thereby, to contribute to international as well as regional society by strengthening their excellent educational and research capacity further.