Speaker: Prof. Han Liyou
Topics: Introduction to Kyoto University
Time: 15:00, Tuesday, 25st October
Venue: Rm 104, International Center
Welcome faculties and students interested in learning about Kyoto University to attend.
Kyoto University
Since its foundation in 1897, Kyoto University has worked to cultivate academic freedom under a spirit of self-reliance and self-respect, and to open up new horizons in creative scholarly endeavor. The university has also sought to contribute to peaceful coexistence across the global community.
The three core missions of a university are education, research, and social contribution. Two of these, research and social contribution, are apt to change in response to global trends. Education, however, has an essential nature that I believe to be unchangeable. In line with its commitment to independent learning, Kyoto University must maintain its position as a bastion of academic freedom, slightly detached from general society and unconstrained by convention. In order to do so, the university must be a place where academic endeavor can proceed undisturbed, while also providing windows into the world and society. These windows can be opened by faculty members equipped with cutting-edge knowledge of the world and society that lies beyond, but the most important role in our university is played by students who venture outside the windows. We must work carefully with partners in industry and government to provide windows that allow students to make the best practical use of abilities they have developed at the university.
In order to cultivate students with abundant inventive capabilities, all faculty and administrative staff members must be committed to pursuing research and social contribution initiatives that attract international attention. Kyoto University has 10 faculties, 18 graduate schools, 14 research institutes (more than any other university in Japan), and many other education and research facilities. I will be doing my utmost to ensure that our goals are advanced across all these different branches of the university community.
Juichi Yamagiwa
President
Kyoto University
Office of International Cooperation and Exchange
October 22, 2016
