At Sophia University, the Faculty of Foreign Studies has been taking the lead in carrying out the programs that present new pathways to students to become globally competent persons. Their rich curriculum that focuses on a multi-dimensional approach to the diversified world sets a clear goal in achieving the ability to think critically and integrate knowledge about other cultures and current events. Their intensive training in foreign languages prepares the students to acquire proficiency and skills to communicate ideas in a variety of culturally diverse settings.
Such long-standing academic endeavor has won recognition by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology for its Type B Project for Promotion of Global Human Resource Development in September this year. There were 111 applications from national, public, and private universities for Type B selection and Sophia University was chosen one of the 31 successful applicants.
The aim of this Project is to provide government funds to universities in support of establishing an environment conducive to globalization measures. Education for global competency should be examined on two levels: first, in response to the need of preparing the students to join the global workforce in this interconnected world, youth must overcome their introvert personality trait and learn to recognize the ability to act with courage and interact with people in the global theater. Second, we need strategies to serve the purpose of enhancing competitive spirit in global industry and to strengthen interactions and relationships between various nations.
Specifically, our aim in this project is to forge a new program that coined the term “3 Gengo x 3 Shiza” literally meaning “three languages and three perspectives” programs in English. This approach combines the acquisition of three languages, Japanese, English, and one other world language (of the country or region of student’s specialized field) with the skills to understand other people’s perspectives and those of the world and integrate them with their own.
Our school ideal “Men and Women for Others, with Others” lays down the ideological foundations for our global educational strategy. Humanitarian motives that lay behind this school motto have helped individual students to acquire a deeper sense of responsibility as a member of the global community and thereby recognize the different values of other people by respecting and sharing them.
In order to put our program into action, we will be establishing Sophia University Global Education Center, SGE for short. From here, we will build an environment to launch new measures on developing global human resources.
In 2009 Sophia University has been selected as one of the Global 30 universities by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Still fresh in our memory is the signing of agreement with Waseda University and ICU, et al. to form Global 5 universities to promote global education in Japan. To be considered for this MEXT Project was a great privilege for us. Sophia University will further pave the way for implementing its distinctive educational program that would have the effect of enabling students to acquire global competency.
