Top Global University Project
About Top University Project (SGU)
As intellectual hubs that drive the nation’s growth, Japanese universities, which owe to satisfy the society’s expectations, are strongly expected to: 1) attract outstanding researchers and students from all over the world; 2) contribute to solving global issues for creating a future with an open mind towards different cultures; 3) develop human resources who are globally active or who are eager to contribute to the creation of prosperous local communities with a global perspective; and 4) expand our presence in global higher education markets to rank among the world’s leading institutions.
To achieve these goals, the project thoroughly carries out “university reform” and “internationalization,” with the aim of establishing a solid foundation for realizing reinforced international competitiveness and fostering exceptional individuals with outstanding talents. The project accordingly provides priority support for the efforts of each university for the 10-year period of AY2014 to AY2023.
Our Efforts and Achievements
With the goal of “becoming a World-Leading Innovative University,” we have promoted globalization, educational reform, governance reform, and research capacity strengthening and have thereby achieved results in areas including “radical reform of graduate school education and promotion of interdisciplinary integration,” “securing excellent global human resources and global standardization of educational implementation systems,” “establishment of cross-departmental organizational structure with enhanced functionality,” and “strategic international expansion of education and research: active expansion of branding and information sharing.”
As for cross-disciplinary education at the graduate school, we have developed 5 “Programs for Leading Graduate Schools,” 2 “Doctoral Programs for World-Leading Innovative & Smart Education,” “Honors Programs for Graduate Schools in Science, Engineering, and Informatics,” and “Next Generation Researcher Development Project,” making further progress in interdisciplinary education. In addition, “Multilingual Expert Program (MLE),” a new interdisciplinary education program leveraging our strength as a university with a foreign language department, boasts students with higher than average “language competence,” “graduate school enrollment rate,” and “motivation for learning,” thereby fostering human resources who can lead research in a global environment.
In terms of education reform, we have promoted the globalization of education by leveraging the four-term system to increase the number of term courses, significantly increasing the number of courses taught in foreign languages, and greatly increasing the number of courses that allow students to graduate or complete in a foreign language only. In the general Comprehensive Selection & Admission by School Recommendation, both the admission quotas and the numbers of successful applicants have increased steadily, and the newly enrolled students are highly motivated with higher average GPAs, thus attracting excellent and diverse students.
Regarding governance reform, we have been strengthening management functions by establishing “OU provosts” and “strategic committees” in order to realize swift decision-making and optimize university administrative efficiency.
Furthermore, the international expansion of education and research has progressed through the activities of our 4 overseas centers, and reciprocal student exchange and the number of outstanding international students admitted have increased, owing to the expansion of educational programs leveraging ASEAN campuses located at 7 universities in 5 countries.
We will ensure to pass the achievements of this project to the next generation for further prosperity of the university.