Materials regarding university reform donated

The Osaka University Archive Repository Preparation Office received 5 binders containing 243 documents regarding the University Reform Promotion Committee and the Sub-committee for Reviewing Basic Policies for University Reform. These documents were donated from TAKAGI Machi, wife of late TAKAGI Shuji, Professor Emeritus of the School of Engineering Science who served as a councilor on these committees.

Dr. Takagi was born in Kyoto Prefecture in 1923. Graduating from the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Kyoto University, he served as an assistant and then assistant professor at the same faculty. After serving as a professor at the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University, he became a professor at the Graduate School of Osaka University in 1965. He was involved in university operations as a councilor since 1969. In 1969 when he became a councilor, as campus riots peaked in Japan. In the wake of such riots, he and other concerned people addressed university reform.

At Osaka University, the University Reform Preparation Investigative Committee headed by NAGAMIYA Takeo, professor at the Graduate School of Engineering Science, commonly known as Nagamiya Committee, was established in 1969 and a report called the N Plan or Nagamiya Plan was issued.

Based on the Nagamiya Plan which aimed to create the ideal of university, the University Reform Promotion Committee was established in order to draft a reform plan achievable in a relatively short time under the existing laws. The council also established the the Sub-committee for Reviewing Basic Policies for University Reform for examining the Nagamiya Plan. Dr. Takagi was active as members of these two committees.

Meeting minutes of the Nagamiya Committee are kept at the Administration Bureau, but those of the University Reform Promotion Committee and the Sub-committee for Reviewing Basic Policies for University Reform are not.

The materials donated by Ms. Takagi are of valuable, making up for a lack of materials regarding the Administrative Bureau and are essential in researching reform at Osaka University.

Osaka University has changed its legal status to that of a university corporation, but there are still many things to learn from the past university reform plans.

The Archive Repository Preparation Office is collecting a variety of materials regarding Osaka University and the institutions that gave birth to it. Osaka University seeks cooperation from the public regarding the donation or loan of materials regarding the history of Osaka University, including campus public relations magazines, syllabuses, notes of lectures, paper materials, leaflets about student movement, photos, albums, and other memorabilia. If you are able to assist us in these efforts, please contact the office below.

Documents formerly belonging to TAKAGI Shuji

Please get in touch with:

Osaka University Archive Repository Preparation Office
1st floor, Administration building 
8-1-1 Aomatani-higashi Minoh 562-8558

Tel: 072-730-5113

Fax: 072-730-5114

Email: kan(at)hpc.cmc.osaka-u.ac.jp

(Please replace (at) with @.)

Note: The Archive Repository was transferred to the Administration Building on the Minoh campus in April 2011. (#1 on the Minoh campus map)