The International Presidential Forum - The 7th Kumamoto University Forum - held at Kumamoto University on October 31st, 2009.
The Kumamoto University Forum has been held in a variety of locations both within and outside of Japan annually since 2003. The International Presidential Forum brings together the presidents and the vice presidents of 26 partner institutions located in 11 different countries. This year the Forum coincided with Kumamoto University’s 60th anniversary. Activities conducted within the forum seek to broaden awareness of the educational research being conducted at Kumamoto University and also create opportunities for participants to share information.
In the morning session, The International Presidential Meeting, was held and included presentations by seven partner universities followed by a brief introduction of their cooperation schemes in the area of international educational research. This session provided the opportunity to exchange opinions and detailed perspectives on collaborative research as well as on the formation of collaborative human resource development programs.
One of the participants, Lou Hongxiang, the Vice President of Shandong University in China, attended The International Presidents Meeting. He commented on the forum’s outcome saying, “Various institutional partners’ participation enables joint cooperation to overcome the difficulties we face in globalization, thus academic evolution can also be expected. One of the results is to build-up a friendship among universities.”
In the afternoon, approximately 170 people were present and attended the Memorial Lectures Session. The participants included staff members from universities and colleges, associations of international exchange in Kumamoto Prefecture, local citizens and officials from Kumamoto University. The results of the morning session of the International Presidential Meeting were reported, and four partner universities also presented their activities on the enhancement of internationalization.
A presentation was also made by Professor Hiyama, Dean of the Graduate School of Science and Technology of Kumamoto University. He gave a general description of the university’s international strategy and discussed the distinctive efforts being made toward internationalization. He also discussed the advantages of Kumamoto’s appeal as a beautiful and competitive destination for students and researchers from overseas.
Kumamoto University considers the promotion of internationalization an issue of great importance for the university as a whole and follows an active policy in the development for international exchange projects.
