National University Reform Enhancement Promotion Project MEXT(Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology)
Tri-Institutional Collaborative/Cooperative Educational Reform Project

Japanese

Outline of the project

Purpose of the reform

Accelerated globalization of recent years has prompted businesses to make inroads into overseas locations, which in turn has resulted in hollowing out of Japanese manufacturers. This is a pressing problem Japan is facing. For successful operations of Japanese companies overseas it is necessary to foster internationally resourceful and practical human resources. For solving the problem of industry being hollowed out back in Japan, on the other hand, it is indispensable to nurture practical and creative human resources good at starting globally competitive new business from local seeds. In other words the industry expects engineers down the road to be“Globally-Engaged, Practical and Innovative Engineers”Educational programs of tomorrow, therefore, must squarely respond to this need.
KOSEN, and both universities of technology (UTs) tightly knitted together as the mainstay of higher educational institutes have been continually turning out practical and creative engineers to underpin design and manufacturing industries of Japan. Curriculums of thethree institutes, to be more specific, are designed seamlessly for any choice of course options open to students. They are KOSEN regular course, KOSEN advanced course, undergraduate courses of UTs master’s courses and doctoral courses of UTs. The purpose of the Tri-Institutional Collaborative/Cooperative Educational Reform Project this time is to become sufficiently competent to effectively turn out“Globally-Engaged, Practical and Innovative Engineers”

Outline of the project

This project is to lay out an educational program to foster globally- and innovation-oriented human resources. Japan from now on needs practical engineers to satisfy these qualifications more than ever. As an engine to effectively and swiftly realize the project it is proposed to build a campus network on the foundation of (1) abundant track record of international cooperative activities of the three institutes (UTs and KOSEN) and (2) locally rooted cooperative activities between the industry, finance, academia and goverment. Major undertakings are as follows.

  1. Build GI-net (Global Innovation Network) by applying VPN(Virtual Private Network) as the infrastructure for cooperative and coordinated activities between the UTs, 51 KOSEN Colleges and KOSEN Head Offices.
  2. Create a hub campus for international coordination and collaboration through which to develop globally-oriented human resources by way of lectures and internship at overseas base sites
  3. Create an industry-finance-academia‒government fusion campus with research and development capability in which local industries, UTs and KOSEN will synergistically be engaged in shared projects, which in the end will foster innovation-oriented human resources
  4. Sophisticate higher education by developing Tri-institutional synergetic education programs, improving faculties’quality and facilitating strategic personnel exchanges among them by making the most of the above three actions implemented
  • Tri-Institutional Collaborative/Cooperative Educational Reform Project

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Track record of the three institutes

  • KOSEN and UTs united through their seamless curriculum have turned out many creative and practical engineers to underpin Japanese manufacturing through KOSEN regular course, KOSEN advanced course, UT undergraduate course, UT master’s course and UT doctoral course.
  • Employment rates of the three institutes have been almost 100% which is an evidence that their contribution to Monozukuri of Japan is highly appreciated (employment rate is high even for UTs doctoral course graduates)
  • It is notable that many graduates are taking an active part in manufacturing industries as president of a company or head of a technical department

In the government conference for the competitiveness of Japanese industries the following expectation was expressed for universities to underpin the growth of Japan. Namely, universities are expected to foster human resources who are globally-oriented, innovation-oriented and/or able to invigorate local industries. Universities are also expected to create new industries with their power of research.

Track record of the three institutes

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Status of cooperation between KOSEN and UTs

Student education
Admission of 770 graduates of KOSEN Colleges in the both UTs at 3rd year stage or into master’s degree course, carrying out collaborative education program (advanced course for the education of engineers), introduction of remote lecture system between UTs and KOSEN, collaborative execution of atomic energy literacy enhancement program and collaborative activities for faculty development.
Joint study
・Execution of joint studies with discretionary expenses of the presidents of the both UTs (approximately 322 cases in 2015).
・There are currently many joint submissions for government grants-in-aid for scientific research and other research funds (32 grant submissions in 2016) by individual faculty members.
Personnel exchange
Track record of students exchanges executed based on the student exchanges system in six years up to 2013:
・35 from KOSEN Colleges to the both UTs and 16 from the both UTs to KOSEN Colleges,
・The number of KOSEN faculties who are graduates of either UT: 370 (10% of total KOSEN faculties) as of April 1, 2016,
・The number of UT faculties who are graduates of KOSEN Colleges: 107 (25% of UT faculties) as of May 1, 2016.
Industry-Academia cooperation
・Established and operation of headquarters for KOSEN-UT Collaboration and Super Regional Industry-Academia-Government,
・JST's New Technology Presentation Meetings have been held every year in collaboration by KOSEN Colleges and UTs.
Others
Integration of libraries of NUT and KOSEN, holding regular study meetings between faculties, holding all Japan KOSEN forum and various international conferences.

The collaboration between KOSEN and UTs is thus equipped with nucleus organizational structure to serve the education of practical engineers indispensable for Monozukuri in Japanf

Status of cooperation between KOSEN and UTs

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