Last academic year, we also received interim assessments for two major projects, the Top Global University Project and the Project for Promoting the Enhancement of Research Universities, for which we received an S for the former and an A for the latter. Furthermore, our Ph.D. Program in Human Biology, a part of MEXT's Program for Leading Graduate Schools that was launched in 2011, received a final post-project assessment of S. These achievements demonstrate the two strengths of our university, being open to the world and transdisciplinary research and education. I would like to take this opportunity to commend the dedication and relentless efforts of all of our faculty members and administrators who worked so earnestly in collecting data and preparing review documents for these initiatives.

It is no exaggeration to say that such initiatives and their outcomes are of vital importance for today's national universities. As Japan's birthrate declines, the demand for higher education in our country is contracting. At the same time, our government, which is suffering from burgeoning social security costs and budget deficits, is being forced to reduce the budget and funds for promoting education, and science and technology. In this environment, the Ministry of Finance is demanding that national universities increase their self-generated income to the same level as the operating expense grants they receive from the government by fiscal 2031. Therefore, national universities, which are managed as separate corporations at present, have no other choice but to deal with this fiscal hardship through their own individual management efforts. The globalization of education is one pedagogical initiative for responding to the declining domestic birthrate, while strengthening research capabilities to increase external funding is one management strategy for increasing self-generated revenue. However, management initiatives are the means for reforms and not the purpose of universities. It is important for us to understand the true significance of globalization and the procurement of external funds, and to continue management and administrative improvements as a means for achieving our primary objectives, which are enhancing our research and educational capabilities.

As we usher in the new academic year, I would like to this opportunity to consider our university from the viewpoint of academic credentials.

What does a University of Tsukuba academic credential mean?

A student's academic credentials represent the history of a student's academic achievements. It is the history of what a student has learned and the skills that student has acquired. However, the academic credentials or academic background of a student is also grounded in the student's place of study. If we contemplate a student's academic credentials at the University of Tsukuba, various aspects come to mind, including what the student has studied or intends to study. As the provider of education, we must consider our university from various perspectives: being the University of Tsukuba, a national university, and a university in general. In other words, academic credentials consist of both the academic achievements of a student and the academic history of the university that provided the educational environment for such achievements. Only when a student clearly understands both what has been learned and where the learning was achieved, does a student's achievements become true academic credentials.

Article 7 of the Basic Act on Education, which is considered the constitution of Japanese education, states that "Universities, as the core of scholarly activities, are to contribute to the development of society by cultivating advanced knowledge and specialized skills, inquiring deeply into the truth to create new knowledge, and broadly offering the fruits of these endeavors to society." Article 83 of the School Education Act also similarly states that "Universities, as centers of science, are designed to impart knowledge broadly, teach and study arts and sciences deeply, and to develop intellectual, ethical and practical abilities." These laws clearly define the role of universities in Japan.

Under the National School Establishment Act (1949), 70 national universities were established by integrating 19 universities, including the prewar imperial universities, 26 schools of higher learning, 62 vocational schools and 83 normal schools. The most important policy in the establishment of these national universities was the principle of "establishing one university in each prefecture to realize equal opportunities in education." Despite the passage of time, national universities continue to maintain their mission as supporting the development of their regional area and the country in general, as well as being educational leaders in the world. Recognizing this purpose of national universities is extremely important when considering the role that higher education plays in developing the future of our country. Declining birthrates will soon accelerate cooperation, collaboration, integration and closure of universities in regional areas. When this wave occurs, every national university will be responsible for providing a full set of higher education options for persons who desire to study in their respective regions. Accordingly, each national university must recognize its unique role and make firm commitments with regards to education and institutional management that will link directly to each of their education and research aspirations and to student selection.

Based on this understanding of the role of national universities and the recognition of our legacy, we must consider our own role as we envision our future. Our university, which has its origins as the oldest higher educational institution of modern Japan and which has undergone repeated reforms over time, was reborn 45 years ago as the primer comprehensive science university in Japan. Its founding principles, which are stated succinctly in several hundred words in various documents, are still relevant today. In a previous yearly address, I defined the strengths of our university as its trans-disciplinary approach and international perspective, and have stated that new academic disciplines are created through trans-disciplinary research and education. The University of Tsukuba, which was created as a "new concept" university, is not bound by the fundamental rule of one core national university for each prefecture. In a geographical sense, the local area of our university is Tsukuba City in Ibaraki Prefecture, but we see ourselves as an entity in the world at large beyond our municipal and prefectural borders. This is our legacy, a history of respecting both basic and applied academic disciplines, while meeting the challenges of constant reforms as an open university. Our contribution to society is achieved through advanced of research and through the development of human resources nurtured through research-based education. This history of building on our legacy is essentially the academic credentials of the University of Tsukuba.

Enriching academic credentials while studying at the University of Tsukuba

Excellent original research is the very cornerstone of education. In addition, providing an education that reflects the characteristics of our university will provide a unique brand value to our students' academic credentials. At present, our university is in the process of working on two major reforms in education. One is the reform in entrance examinations for undergraduate schools, and the other is the reorganization of all graduate school programs into degree programs.

The reform in undergraduate entrance examinations is directly linked to educational reforms in our undergraduate programs. Our undergraduate programs have been organized into degree programs for advanced specialized education since the establishment of the university. While we need to continuously discuss the improvement and advancement of these programs, more important is the reform of undergraduate liberal arts education and the nurturing of transferable skills. This is the starting point for discussing the adoption of a general entrance examination for potential undergraduates and specialty finding semesters. We must first understand the difference between liberal arts and general education. In the universities of medieval Europe, knowledge comprised liberal arts and was not focused on nurturing practical skills for any specific professions in areas such as religion, law or medicine. Essentially, liberal arts referred to the three subjects of grammar, rhetoric and theory and the four subjects of mathematics, algebra, astronomy, and music. These were special disciplines for mastering the essence of nature, humanity and society, and were important even for students studying for a particular profession. The rationale behind the mastery of liberal arts was the thought that one must first become an excellent human being before becoming a specialist. At the University of Tsukuba, we seek to adopt the view of liberal arts education as including not only the study of these seven liberal arts subjects, but also of a diverse body of specialist fields. While liberal arts education does not need to be focused on a particular class year, there is a need to consider teaching methods for the initial years of undergraduate education (first to second year), bearing in mind the level of knowledge of these younger students. On the other hand, the purpose of general education is to learn basic ways of thinking and skills necessary for acquiring knowledge. It is learning required for deepening or developing one's own specialization in the arts or sciences, understanding other specialized fields, and honing the skills that are necessary for collaboration with other disciplines. In Japan, however, both liberal arts education and general education are translated as kyoyo kyoiku, and this tends to cause misunderstanding to some extent. General education can also be referred to as the foundation for transferable skills, which are essential for playing an active role in society after graduation, or transcending national and discipline barriers. Even in the world of research, transferable skills that transcend fields of learning become the source of innovation and breakthroughs. In other words, education in liberal arts and transferable skills enables the broad conveying of knowledge and the development of practical abilities as stated in the School Education Act.

The move to a system of degree programs for graduate education is a pathway for the broad development of specialist skills that can deepen professional expertise, while making the best use of our trans-disciplinary approach. Education at the graduate level is fundamentally inseparable from research. This is in line with the view that education and research lead to the renewal of knowledge (Humboldt's doctrine). The School Education Act also refers to education and research in an integrated manner. It is important for all individual teaching staff to do as Sir Isaac Newton stated and stand on the shoulders of giants to conduct excellent and highly original research, and to perceive labs and seminars as venues for continually renewing knowledge. Moreover, while developing intellectual excellence as a professional is an essential condition for earning a degree at our university, I want to impress upon you that this in itself is not an adequate condition on its own. That is to say that in-depth education/research in specialized arts and sciences is not enough for nurturing students. In addition to professional skills backed by excellent research, students must have abilities grounded in the liberal arts. In the future, for example, we expect university-wide discussion on matters such as (1) communication skills for global collaboration, (2) an understanding of diversity and the ability to coexist with different people, (3) entrepreneurship, and (4) literacy in science and trans-science disciplines (social value judgments cannot be achieved by science alone). We must give sufficient consideration to these when developing our proposals for the Program for Graduate School of Excellence. Furthermore, rather than simply nurturing the development of professionals and researchers who are intellectually outstanding, we must aim to develop human resources who are also morally outstanding before they are professionals. This is something I feel very strongly about, particularly every time I see or hear on the news about incidents of research misconduct, harassment, conflicts of interest or other such transgressions in the world of academia.

If we can make visible the capabilities and values acquired by students who subscribe to our principles while studying at this university, the academic credentials of our graduates, or what our graduates have learned at the University of Tsukuba, will become evident. As a prerequisite for this, we will require a mechanism (assessment of the level of achievement) for determining what each student has learned. Relentless reforms aimed at realizing an education of substance and corresponding improvements in educational quality are necessary.

Enriching our university's academic credentials

The foundation of our uniqueness, which is the basis for the learning that students do at the University of Tsukuba, is the research we undertake and the various activities that are borne from the results of this research.

I, bearing in mind the trans-disciplinary approach of our university, redefined our university in a previous address as a hub for creating new academic fields and new areas of study. At that time, I also expressed my view on the importance of basic, applied and developmental research, and the usefulness of both discipline-based and trans-disciplinary research. To promote the development of such research, we must establish an environment where teachers as individuals can demonstrate their individuality and capabilities. For example, at the time of its establishment, our university abandoned the traditional academic chair system and has maintained a group system for research activities. In this way, we have maintained freedom and diversity in research. On the other hand, we have found that at times promoting serendipitous research, which is only possible in large-scale research or in a protected environment, does not always proceed smoothly. Our Center for Computational Sciences jointly purchased and operates the Oakforest-PACS supercomputer with the University of Tokyo. Last year, this supercomputer was number one in the world in not only the IO-500 list for large-scale numerical simulations, but also in storage performance which is extremely important for big data and AI processing. Although this success is largely due to the ability of the individual researchers, it also reflects the manner in which they responded collectively to achieve these results. As we maintain our group system, we must strive also to improve our support for individual researchers who are developing and demonstrating their abilities. Some faculty members within our university are adopting subject-groups where a group of researchers rotate responsibility for providing the education of a specific subject matter so that interference with individual research activities is minimized. Such careful coordination of educational content makes it possible to increase time for research as well as participation in international joint research projects. In addition to making structural improvements, we must continue to promote such collaboration among faculty members.

Last academic year we conducted a quantitative organizational assessment to visualize research results. Of course, this was not aimed at comparing our faculties which have very different research cultures, but was aimed at improving the quality of our research. We hope that the continuance of such assessments will benefit all of our faculties and their members. Moreover, if we can benchmark our faculties with similar faculties in other institutions of higher educational over time, we can strengthen the uniqueness of each faculty and enhance our understanding of emerging research trends.

Increasing the acquisition of external (competitive) funding is one of the most important challenges we face as grants for operating expenses are being continually reduced. One of the weak points of our university is the small number of postdoctoral researchers. There is a positive correlation between the acquisition of external funds and the number of postdoctoral researchers, creating a positive spiral when either of these numbers is increased. Further efforts on the part of individual teachers and research groups are vital. We appreciate the efforts made to boost applications for research funding from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). However, funds are available from a wide variety of sources that we have not always been proactive in pursuing. I would like our researchers to pursue discussions on how to obtain such funds with URAs, the Division of External Funding Management, the Division of Financial Planning and Budget, and the Headquarters for International Industry-University Collaboration.

I highly recommend pursuing research through collaboration with industry, government and university. Such collaboration allows us to share each other's strengths while complementing each other in other areas. The activities of the Headquarters for International Industry-University Collaboration have resulted in larger grants and a three-fold increase in external funds. Moreover, the University of Tsukuba now ranks second among Japanese universities in the acquisition of funds from overseas corporations. In addition to enhancing our financial position, the Headquarters for International Industry-University Collaboration has increased the number of our R&D Centers where researcher from corporations are invited to the university as professors. These centers also offer graduate students experience in business-based research.

Collaborative research with international institutions of higher education is also beginning to accelerate. Through our CiC (Campus-in-Campus) initiative, we are currently pursuing collaboration with various institutions of higher education in the United States in the area of digital science. In addition to basic research in IT including hardware, algorithm development and cybersecurity, we are also considering participation in diverse research fields that exploit advances in AI. We are eager to realize these initiatives as programs for enhancing our international presence. The International Education and Research Laboratory Program conducts highly original collaborative research with international institutions. Last year units that research sports science and human science, which are not common, were established.

Last year, the "fake news" that we were planning to merge the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences into the Faculty of Business Sciences caused quite a stir at our university and in society at large. One of the underlying causes for this misunderstanding is the widely published criticism in the media over the last several years of the humanities and social sciences. While other universities dedicated all their efforts to promoting the sciences during the first five years of the Program for Promoting the Enhancement of Research Universities, we established a research center for the humanities and social sciences as well. For the last five years of this program, this research center will focus on issues outlined in the United Nation's SDGs. I also believe that with the cooperation of researchers in both these fields, we can improve and strengthen our undergraduate and graduate programs in law.

I stated before that the world is our community. However, collaborating with Tsukuba City is essential for both our university and the city. Tsukuba Science City was established 55 years ago. In the early years of the Science City, efforts were focused on developing infrastructure, before shifting to establishing the identities of each institution. The focus is now on developing collaboration among the institutions in the city. The University of Tsukuba and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology launched the Combined Technical Fund, which has now been expanded into the Project for University-Industry Cooperation Strengthening in Tsukuba, which includes support from the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization and the Ibaraki Prefectural Government. We are also planning to establish an arena in our campus to create a new venue for bringing together our research capabilities and for revitalizing the center of the city. I ask you all to help ground our university's culture within Tsukuba City, the home of our students, faculty and administrative staff.

Support and further development of University of Tsukuba academic credentials

The 2018 academic year is a year of milestones for higher education in Japan. Although the population of 18 year-olds in Japan has been declining for many years, the number of students continuing on to university has also been increasing, resulting in a period of slight increase in university enrollment followed by flat growth. In 2018, however, this number has started to decrease. Since this downturn, the Central Council for Education's Subdivision on Universities has been holding ongoing discussions on the future of education. The Council for Designing 100-Year Life Society is also holding discussions on university reforms in today's time of declining population. The population of 18-year-olds in Japan was 1.37 million in 2005, and plunged to 1.19 million in 2016. This downward trend is projected to continue, falling below one million in 2032, and decreasing to approximately 800,000 by 2040. The University of Tsukuba seeks students of high quality, particularly those individuals who are capable of advancing and becoming the custodians of humanity's knowledge. We, as a national university responsible for the education of our youth, must recognize that this is a serious problem. In order for us to meet the needs of society for highly educated human resources, it is clear that securing high-quality international students and continuing education students is very important. The University of Tsukuba already has the largest percentage international student intake among national universities, particularly of graduate students, and we are expected to further increase this intake in both quality and quantity. At the same time, however, we still need a new strategy for accepting undergraduate students from overseas, which will improve not only our recruitment policies, but also our educational content. Increasing the intake for our master's programs may be appropriate for working professionals who want to obtain a higher degree or desire retraining. Extension programs with innovative teaching approaches that meet the learning goals of such potential students in terms the desired professional and critical thinking skills will be in demand. When I mentioned envisioning our future and making commitments earlier, there was no assumption of our taking on the role of a community college. Furthermore, regulations have been expanded so that vocational education programs can be created in both new and existing institutions of higher education. I believe that the University of Tsukuba, as a comprehensive, research-based university, can offer unique vocational education.

Student support is a crucial factor for students as they earn their academic credentials. Our policy is to increase student aid, however slight, even as operating expense grants continue to decrease. In accordance with the Japanese government's commitment to expand tuition fee exemptions and scholarships, we have reviewed the framework of our economic support for students this academic year. Although the amount may be small, we have established a brand new assistance framework for students in doctoral programs. It is also clear that our Spread Your Wings and Fly, University of Tsukuba Students! initiative that is grounded on our concept of academic mushashugyo is diversifying its activities and making progress every year. The completed Daiwa Lease Community Station is being used as a place for experiencing different cultures, and is contributing to the realization of internationalism in everyday life.

It is important to support students not only during their tenure at university but also after completion of their studies. Our new alumni association, which was established in January 2017 with former president of our university Dr. Leo Esaki as its chairman, has actively begun such support. The association on its own, and with us, engages in exchange across generations and fields of study to support the university and enrich the lives of its individual members. Our Center for Diversity, Accessibility and Career Development (DAC) conducts research on the professional and social activities of persons who have graduated or completed programs at our university, which is used to propose reforms in educational content and employment support. In particular, efforts are made to promote entrepreneurship through innovative curriculum and workshops. In fact, the J-WAVE Innovation World Festa 2018 will be held at Roppongi Hills in Tokyo this September. This event, which we co-host and which our students are fully involved in its operations brings together technology and social innovators. The University of Tsukuba also makes every effort to promote diversity in not only gender but also in age, disabilities, and nationality to discover and shape new talent, which is important even from a managerial point of view.

In the past academic year, the participation of our students in academic and extracurricular activities was quite remarkable. The Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games are just around the corner and the momentum to promote and recognize the value of sport is building. Also, the establishment and initial measures for the Japanese version of the NCAA will start this year. Its ultimate aim is to transform the management framework of the various individual sport organizations to one where participating universities will act as the main governing body. Reforms must be undertaken after careful reconsideration of the value of university sports. To promote this agenda, we launched our new Athletic Department this year which will address the numerous problems such as the limitations of university sports as extracurricular activities, ensuring safety and security of students, and providing academic support for athletes. It is our hope that we can steadily arrive at solutions to these issues through open discussion.

The University of Tsukuba Hospital must adeptly manage its operations from the perspective of being both an independent hospital and a department of a comprehensive research university. The hospital has been highly regarded from a managerial viewpoint for its ability to turn several years of financial deficit to a surplus. To continue to be profitable, the hospital must be an attractive workplace for high-performing doctors and other health care professionals, who will ultimately enhance the quality of our medical care. We must consider employment and support in a new manner: one which does not consider hospital personnel as tenured faculty members and administrators. Our university hospital is the only one in Ibaraki Prefecture that is designated as a special function hospital. In addition to its mission to provide advanced medical care and develop medical technology, it is also responsible for community-based health care in the northern Kanto and southern Tohoku regions. Within the framework of the Ibaraki Prefecture Western Regional Medical System Study, we established an endowed research unit with Chikusei City last year. In addition, the Ibaraki Prefecture Western Regional Clinical Education Center, jointly supported by our hospital and Jichi Medical University, will open this year. The Tsukuba Clinical Research & Development Organization (T-CReDO) was selected by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) as part of its Strategic Promotion Program for Bridging Research platform. We have high expectations for its ability to translate medical research into practice.

I believe that it is important that our laboratory schools reconfirm that they are part of a comprehensive research university and take advantage of this position. Our three high schools, one of which has been selected as a Super Science High School (SSH) and two as a Super Global High Schools (SGH), should continue their innovation of secondary education while adhering to their respective educational policies and enhancing collaboration with our university. The joint initiative between our special needs schools and our engineering faculty, which makes use of our gymnasium, and the summer training camps for inclusive education organized by our schools are good examples of such collaboration. Such programs indicate that three pedagogical pillars of our laboratory schools—leadership education, teacher education, and global education—is proceeding smoothly. However, we hope that they will continue their reforms and as we are, and that they will continue developing a vision for the future from educational and managerial perspectives.

Our university and its individual organizations are engaging in various management initiatives. As resources become increasingly restricted, we must develop strategies for securing and distributing resources from both short and medium-to-long-term perspectives. With this objective in mind, we established the Office of University Management Reform directly under the president in April with the cooperation of a committee consisting of faculty members, administrators and external experts. In light of reviews and analyses conducted by the Office for Corporate Strategy and based on total expenditure of university and all its organizations, this office will confirm our strengths and weaknesses and submit a management reform plan for achieving our education, research and social contribution objectives. As noted by the Office of University Management Reform, the consideration of advice from external stakeholders will become increasingly important in the management of the university. Although we have been incorporating views from external experts in our Governing Council, we still need to rid ourselves of the mindset of a closed institution if we are to achieve the ratio of self-generated revenue requested by the Ministry of Finance. We must strengthen also our partnerships with local government and industry, and define new innovative partnerships that will help build the future.

Connecting a University of Tsukuba academic credential to the future

If we were to use the Hakone Ekiden relay race for comparison, this year would be the final leg of our Third Mid-Term Plan Period. Even in the Hakone Ekiden, there is some uphill competition in this leg that requires endurance. As we carefully reflect on the basic principles of a university, and more specifically, of our university, we must run full speed together over the half-way mark of the Third Mid-Term Plan Period this year.

Last year a multitude of scandals and misconduct by Japanese multinational corporations came to light one after the other, including the serious incident involving the Shinkansen, which has been Japan's symbol for reliability. I believe that one of the causes of these incidents, which may be described as the coming apart of seams of major Japanese corporations, is the delay in dealing with the shift in industrial structure from visible manufacturing to invisible manufacturing. The turbulent globalized society we live in today is a society transitioning toward a super smart society, where changes are taking place at a speed and scale like never before. In this environment, universities are being challenged to create value and develop human resources capable of driving and responding to such changes. However, we do also understand that there are fields of study that are remote from such changes and that proceed with a different sense of speed and scale. There are also fields of study that cannot be grouped, or that remain deeply rooted in individual talent. One essential aspect of a university as an organization is its capacity for understanding and tolerance, and the ability to encompass all fields of study.

I fear that this unravelling of the seams at Japanese corporations may reflect changes in the spiritual structure of our country. I wonder whether there is an increasing inability for tolerance of different opinions. When such intolerance is linked with populism, it gives rise to aggression, and when it is shared through mass media and SNS, it leads to the further amplification of intolerance and excessive criticism. It is commonly believed that negative feelings such as anger, hatred, jealousy or sorrow underlie intolerance. Japanese people believed in the past that causing inconvenience to others or to society at large was the most shameful thing a person could do. This communally held value deterred people from acting without restraint. Such current happenings could reflect that the social barriers for going against this value has been lowered. This perhaps is fait accompli for living in a globalized society. However, since social norms in Japan were based on values that are the extreme opposite of self-centeredness, there is a possibility that this will lead to the collapse of Japanese society as we now know it. Anger, hatred, jealousy, grief and populism are considered to be significant causes of war. Fear with regards to the economic stability and security of the individual, family, region and nation, greed in the pursuit of profit and material wealth, and the desire for fame lie at the root of such emotional states.

Universities are places not of knowledge but of wisdom for societal aspirations. The University of Tsukuba offers ways to pursue wisdom that is harmonious with our values and background, which is core of our academic credentials or the sum total of what has been studied and learned here. Together with all of you, I would like to continually reflect on the essence of our academic credentials and to resolutely put into practice what we must do to impart these credentials to our students.