GU Regional Traits Globalize Nagoya University
By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
Regional characteristics are the keys to the globalization of Nagoya University, and while the majority of Korean universities located outside the capital area are getting less competitive, Nagoya President Shin-ichi Hirano attributed its success in globalization to the unique traits of the region.
``Each region has its own characteristics that have an influence on the universities there. I believe that the university should have its originality based on regional characteristics to open up a way to real internationalization,’’ Hirano said in an interview with The Korea Times.
Nagoya University is located in Chubu, the central part of Japan, and a historically important area. With simple and diligent people, Chubu is characterized as an area of steady and persistent progress, the president said.
``I assume that such characteristics nurtured a company like the Toyota Motor Corporation here and have brought the current situation with the most prosperous economic activities in Japan,’’ he said.
Nagoya also boasts of its excellent professors including Noyori Ryoji, a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry; Akasaki Isamu, the developer of the blue light emitting diode; Oosawa Fumio, a founder of biophysics; Sakata Shoichi who specialized in the theory of elementary particles; Hayakawa Satio, a founder of X-ray astrophysics; and Mori Shigefumi, who was awarded the Fields Medal, the equivalent to the Nobel Prize in mathematics.
``Most of these academic achievements derived from research activities in their younger years, in other words, these young researchers developed new academic disciplines at our university,’’ Hirano said.
Nagoya has 1,250 foreign students as of Nov. 1 2006. Among 1,041 students from Asian countries, 137 are from Korea or about 13 percent of the total and the second largest group following China.
``Last year, we made university-wide agreements with Korea University and Seoul National University with the focus on an Education Center for International Students and are getting ready to accept more students from Korea. Larger numbers of excellent Korean students are expected to come and study at our university through these efforts,’’ Hirano said.
Judging from the number of accepted foreign students, popular fields of studies are found at the graduate schools of engineering, international development and languages and cultures.
As for social trends, Hirano said that when the national economy improves, demand from industries for students in some graduate courses such as engineering, economics, and law increase. As a consequence, it will greatly decrease the number of students going into doctorate courses due to increased employment rate.
Nagoya University has a researcher who has published 14 articles in ``Nature and Science’’ as well as seven articles in Cell and some other researchers who have written cover articles for Nature. However, Hirano says that the university’s quality should not be based solely on the number of articles in famous journals.
``Publishing articles in Nature and Science seems to be considered as one of the indicators of a university’s quality, however, if this indicator considerably affects universities’ ranking, I feel a great concern about the ranking itself,’’ he said. ``Universities like Nagoya are composed of diverse academic fields, and each field should be appropriately evaluated along with the actual situation within the establishment.’’
Regarding English proficiency, the university facilitates independent approaches, which fit in with each field of study. Lecturers in the graduate schools teach students how to write papers in English. Students are given more opportunities for presentations in English at international academic conferences and long-term research stays abroad, the president said.
Lastly, as for incorporation that many national universities in Korea are scheduled to go through, the president offered pros and cons about it.
``Regarding specific advantages, incorporation gives benefits in the areas of education, research, social contribution, financial affairs and others. However, I would like to refrain from making concrete evaluations on those benefits because how we view evaluation indices is an important factor to consider,’’ he said.
``As for specific disadvantages, the university hospital attached to the School of Medicine has experienced increased administrative burdens and capability limitations since university incorporation. I am afraid that the goals of the university hospital of providing reliable, safe, state of the art medical care as well as training new doctors may not be achieved.’’
• Nagoya University was established as a national university under Japan's new education system in 1949. Its history, however, extends back to 1871, with the founding of its predecessors, the Temporary Hospital and Medical School, where medical training was carried out.
• These later merged to form the Nagoya Medical College, and in 1939, with the establishment of the School of Medicine and the School of Science and Engineering, Nagoya Imperial University was inaugurated.
• As of April 1, 2004, Nagoya University was re-launched as the ``National University Corporation of Nagoya.'' It now comprises nine undergraduate schools, 13 graduate schools, three research institutes, two inter-university service facilities and 16 inter-departmental education and research centers, with a teaching and administrative staff of approximately 3,500 and a total student population of about 16,000.
• The main campus is located in Nagoya (population: 2.2 million), the center of Japan. Chubu constitutes the nerve center of Japan in terms of industry and technology, and all manner of enterprises thrive in the area. In this environment, Nagoya University makes particular efforts to promptly transfer the results of scientific and technological research to industry.