Grand Opening Event for the College of Cross-Cultural and Multidisciplinary Studies building of Kumamoto University Held

The grand opening event for the College of Cross-Cultural and Multidisciplinary Studies building of Kumamoto University was held on Wednesday, April 6, 2016.

The College of Cross-Cultural and Multidisciplinary Studies building has been developed as a symbolic facility of Kumamoto University’s globalized education after the university was selected to take part in the Top Global University Project of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in 2014. The building has been finally completed, and starts operation from the new semester. This opening event was held to celebrate the completion of the building as well as introduce our new building.

The opening ceremony was attended by approximately 100 people involved in school education from inside and outside Kumamoto Prefecture. In the special lecture following the ceremony, Mr. Takanori Sonoda from the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation delivered a lecture about the importance of developing leaders who have gained some experience abroad as well as in Japan and those who can make independent judgments based on a sense of ownership and crisis.

On the day, various other programs were also offered, including trial lectures for liberal arts courses in English (global courses), a briefing session on the Global Leader Course that will open in AY 2017, an information corner on study abroad programs, and a facility tour. Approximately more than 100 high school and university students from Kumamoto Prefecture as well as other prefectures participated in these programs. Comments were heard from high school students who participated in the programs, such as, “I want to develop the communication skills necessary to work in a global environment, and “I want to study abroad at least once during my university days.”

The College of Cross-Cultural and Multidisciplinary Studies building houses four classrooms, and a lounge where Japanese students and international students can interact with each other. The College will offer liberal arts courses in English (global courses) and hold various events, such as the english-TALKmon program, an extracurricular activity that aims to help students at Kumamoto University improve their English skills, and the Kumamoto University Global Youth Campus program, which provides a global education environment for high school students and technical college students before they enter university.