Message

The Top Global University (TGU) Project is a 10-year funding project launched by the Japanese government in 2014. Using this generous funding, 34 creme of the crop universities chosen from over 750 Japanese universities and colleges are expected to calibrate their academic systems with the internationally accepted practices and bolster their global competitiveness. These elite institutions, or Top Global Universities, are divided further into two types: Type A (Top Type) and Type B (Global Traction Type). We at Kyushu University are indeed honored to have been chosen as one of the 13 Type A universities, expected to compete and collaborate with world class universities. Our mission declares that "Through continual internal reform and quality education at an international level, we aim to be a top-level education and research hub marked by vitality and a willingness to address the issues that will confront us in the future,” It is in line with this basic mission that we have designed our own vision of the TGU which we call “SHARE-Q” – the shorthand for " Strategic Hub Area for top-global Research and Education, Kyushu University.”

総長

The kinds of initiatives and activities we have carried out since then should range from educational reform, the propping up of our research power, governance reform to global branding (reputation management). As regards education, in April 2018 we founded a brand new undergraduate school - the School of Interdisciplinary Science and Innovation. The new school promotes an appreciation for diversity and global-mindedness in its students by equipping them with intercultural communication skills and making study abroad a must. As for research, we have created two inter-university platforms designed to promote an integration and a further development of multitudinous disciplines that have hitherto been conceived separately.

The first of these platforms is the Kyushu University Platform of Inter/Transdisciplinary Energy Research established in October 2016, and its peer, established in April 2019, is the Kyushu University Institute for Asian and Oceanian Studies. A prime example of our governance reform is what we call the Kyushu University Renaissance Project — a comprehensive, sustainable development campaign for securing and training the next generation of researchers who will bring about new innovation. Last but not least, our branding activities, including the hosting of two major global forums, viz., the World Social Science Forum in September 2018, and QS-APPLE 2019 in November 2019, have resulted in boosting our reputation in and outside Japan.We are now in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic which has profoundly changed our lives, including our socio-economic activities and the scope of our domestic and international mobility. Universities cannot possibly remain unaffected in the face of such a profound change. Like other universities throughout the world, Kyushu University has also been forced to rely on online classes, and to cancel most of our study abroad programs due to world-wide cross-border movement restrictions. We are highly unlikely to revert back to the world that once was. But we cannot give up on our effort to realize the vision embodied in the SHARE-Q concept. Looking over and preparing for both the Corona Era and the era beyond, we shall bolster our endeavors for internationalization by, for instance, developing styles of hybrid education that seeks to combine face-to-face and online learning, and on-site recruiting strategies utilizing our international alumni and overseas offices, etc.

President, Kyushu University
Tatsuro Ishibashi

Kyushu University is a comprehensive research university, aiming to establish the world’s top research and education hub in Kyushu District, Japan. Our plan, “SHARE-Q”, is a package of enhancement and renovation of research, education and governance, including expansion of world collaborative research, global human resource development, reforming governance system, as well as effective reputation management system. SHARE-Q covers the activities for encouraging international research, establishment of a new undergraduate school, rapid decision making process, and strategic information delivery.

The project of main campus move to a new location, Ito, will be completed in 2018, where SHARE-Q accelerates and embodies the future shape of the university.

Senior Vice President for the Top Global University Project, Kyushu University
Akira Harata