The Second International Tuning Symposium was held
The second international tuning symposium on the theme of “Global Collaboration among Industry, Academia and Government by Tuning” was held at the Josui Kaikan on Thursday, October 17.
‘Tuning’ is a global academic network project to promote and develop the international validity of higher education programs and the mobility of students and superior human resources by collaboration among universities globally. Our university started participating in this project ahead of other universities in Japan.
In this symposium our aim was to discuss the expansion of tuning as reflecting the needs of business and industry, in response to the global human resource development policy of the Japanese government. The program started with an opening address by Susumu Yamauchi, president of Hitotsubashi University, followed by a guest speech by Mitsunari Yoshida, an officer of the National University Corporation Support Division at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. After a keynote speech by Kazuyasu Ochiai, board member and vice president of Hitotsubashi University, Robert Wagenaar, a professor at the University of Groningen who has played a central role in the foundation and management of tuning in Europe, gave a keynote address.
In the second half of the symposium, representing the Science Council of Japan, Kazuo Kitahara, a professor at the Tokyo University of Science who is working as a supervisor for area quality assurance in higher education, gave a talk, which was followed by another talk by Yujiro Ito, CEO and Managing Executive Officer of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, as a representative of industry. The talks were followed by a panel discussion among the speakers at the symposium, moderated by Yukari Matsuzaka, a professor at the Research and Development Center for Higher Education at our university. Tetsuo Goda, an officer of the Scientific Research Aid Division at the Ministry of Education, joined the discussion later and talked about the role of universities and tuning in developing the ideal type of human resources needed by the global community and economy.
We were blessed with fine weather on the day of the symposium, and the hall was filled with participants from many fields, including students, business people and staff of universities.
Many people participated in the following and very lively session to exchange opinions among those present. Opinions and questions from students regarding opportunities to study abroad and the necessary procedures and preparations for this were fielded by the president of our university, academic staff and graduates, and the various speakers. There were also many questions from staff from other universities about how our university’s tuning project would affect higher education and international exchange and collaboration in the future. All in all this was a very fruitful opportunity to exchange opinions and deepen mutual friendship across different fields.
Pictures of the 2nd International Tuning Symposium are available here:
