President's Message

Working even harder to bring about Innovation through Challenge

President Terumasa Oshiro

　The world today is in a state of upheaval and the demands being made of higher education are rapidly changing.Universities are, amongst many other things, being called on to foster global human resources who can handle this pace of change, to take a lead in the creation of innovation in society and to facilitate regional renewal. With the declining 18-yearold population, we are in an age when no university can look forward to the future with optimism. It is no longer a case of continuing to do what we have done until now. Qualitative change is now expected of universities. It is in these conditions that Kyoto Sangyo University (KSU) is coming up to its 50th anniversary. We must take the time at this critical juncture to once more examine the spirit of challenge that we have held so precious since the establishment of the university and work to change ourselves.

　The term“ Musubiwaza”, which is another way to read Sangyo in the university’s name, reflects our core identity in striving to adapt to the changing contexts of our times. It relates to the practice of connecting objects, subjects, and people with new ideas and ways of thinking“. Musubiwaza” means to create new values in society. Since the university’s foundation, “Musubiwaza” has been the backbone of our continuing Innovation through Challenge . With our predecessors’ constant innovations, KSU has continued to develop steadily and successfully. In intensifying our efforts to improve KSU, we must continue to put all our efforts across the university through“ Musubiwaza” into strengthening our university as a whole.
　Now that we are almost at our 50th anniversary, we must create an ideal image of what we believe this university should be like, and then through“ Musubiwaza”, make the most of the new possibilities that this ideal image may bring. As embodied in our Founding Principles , one of our educational reforms is to foster“ global human resources” who facilitate socio-economic development. In collaboration with the Faculty of Foreign Studies, we designed a new program, the Global Science Course (GSC), for students in the science field to foster global professionals in science and engineering. We intend to extend this model “global human resources” program to all of our faculties. In addition, we developed a TOEIC English-focused curriculum in General Education to ensure that each and every student across the university has the opportunity to acquire practical English proficiency. In this way, through forging links between both university-wide as well as individual faculty initiatives, we are working towards innovation for our 50th anniversary. We will also work to further our efforts to enrich our research activities in revolutionary ways. In fact, one of the distinguishing features of KSU research institutes is that we do not only focus on project-based research in an independent manner, but also bring together multiple projects to promote even more opportunities for innovation.

　We need to put even more emphasis and effort through Innovation through Challenge to create a university which is constantly developing and evolving to meet anticipated future demands. Through these continuing educational reforms, we want KSU to be a university which ensures that each and every new student entering KSU will, in four years, graduate with an even greater sense of satisfaction.