Graduate students of Nagoya University, including study-abroad students, have been continuing to be active in all kinds of roles, in diverse contexts both within Japan and overseas. To support such activities, the University has always focused on education and research in its doctoral programs.
However, in the last two decades or so, economic instability associated with globalization has worsened, and social issues affecting the entire world, such as global warming, have become increasingly prominent. In the wake of these trends, the focus has been placed on educating doctoral students who can go on to help find solutions to such problems. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology commenced the Program for Leading Graduate Schools (hereinafter, “the Leading Program”) in 2011 to respond to this need. The Leading Program strives for the development of future leaders who can play an active role globally, across the industry, academia, and government, possessing both insight and creativity.
The Leading Program adopted 63 proposals on a competitive basis. The University won six programs. Three of the University's six programs have been awarded an S rating in the final evaluation, denoting particularly outstanding results. We are proud to have secured a high number of the adopted programs and a high proportion of S ratings among them, and these results demonstrate the excellent quality of the doctoral education at the University.
And yet, this was only the first step. To spread the various education programs practiced in the Program for Leading Graduate Schools and the teaching methods cultivated therein to the wider group of graduate students in general, the University established the Doctoral Education Consortium in 2017. We provide a place for learning that is different from specialized subjects, training students in transferable skills, entrepreneurship, and more, working in cooperation with other organizations at the University.
We are also providing support to help tackle the challenges of further refining and enhancing doctoral education. The University has had four programs adopted, the best in the country, under the WISE Program (Doctoral Program for World-leading Innovative & Smart Education) initiated by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in 2018. In these programs, private companies, Japanese research institutes, and foreign research institutes work together with the University to provide education and research opportunities to doctoral students. This new environment allows students to learn how to understand and solve problems from perspectives that cannot be attained by remaining solely within the realm of academia. The Doctoral Education Consortium provides a place for four WISE Programs to share both strengths and limitations of the various trial efforts for further improvements. We support each WISE Program and expand the achievements of four programs to the entire university as appropriate.
One of key missions of the University is to provide outstanding students educated in these new programs for a diverse society. For this reason, the Doctoral Education Consortium offers career support to students. We listen to their hopes and worries and give them job placement services. We introduced an event, "Doctor’s Career Path Forum", which has had ten meetings and has become part of the University’s regular event schedule. Many doctoral students have found places of employment or begun joint research through these events.
This is how the Doctoral Education Consortium plays a team-leading role for doctoral program education at the University. We hope to develop our activities further in order to provide graduate education that can truly contribute to society. We greatly appreciate your help and cooperation with our work to come.
Director, Doctoral Education Consortium, Nagoya University Akira Fujimaki
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