Ensuring the University Remains Connected to and Valued by Society

For a university to remain connected to society as a valued and sought-after institution, collaboration across various sectors is essential. As Vice President for Community Engagement, I aim to actively promote partnerships beyond the university so that a wide range of stakeholders—especially students—find Sophia to be an appealing place.

To ensure the university’s continued relevance, it is crucial that we remain an attractive place to students. Students seek robust education and research opportunities, ideal campus locations, and plentiful career prospects – all parts of a university that must be improved holistically. However, there are limits to what a university can achieve on its own, and collaborating with others to enrich the overall experience that we can provide to students is more important than ever.

Joint research with industry is a particularly effective tool to strengthen a university’s research capabilities. Until now, the focus has been on matching the university’s research “seeds”, promising technologies or ideas, with companies’ needs, but moving forward, research that creates new value itself will be in greater demand. This shift will also require us to collaborate with local communities. Additionally, in education, partnerships that leverage the strengths of other universities and work with high schools in nurturing talent will be important.

The key to promoting and realizing new collaboration is to raise awareness for a university’s initiatives. Unless people know what Sophia University is working on and what it wants to achieve, no one will step forward to support or collaborate. Therefore, I intend to be proactive in our public relations as well and share all that Sophia has underway.

Connecting Internal Structures While Strengthening External Collaboration

Building an internal framework is just as essential to promoting external collaboration. Social collaboration is not something that can be carried out solely by one specific department—it must be driven through coordination among various departments and organizations within the university. However, since universities are typically organized in vertical silos, internal coordination involving multiple departments may not always be smooth. One of the key roles of the Vice President for Community Engagement is to serve as a bridge between these divisions.

In my previous roles, I served as Director of the Student Affairs Center and Director of the Admissions Center. In these positions, I was involved in supporting student scholarships, career development, extracurricular activities, admissions-related work, and public relations. I also served as Chairperson of the Department of Materials and Life Sciences, acting as a liaison between the university leadership and faculty. I intend to leverage these experiences and insights in fulfilling my responsibilities in this new role.

Pursuing Meaningful High School–University Collaboration and Increasing International Student Enrollment

There are two key initiatives I plan to focus on moving forward.

The first is strengthening collaboration with high schools. In recent years, Sophia University has proactively signed high school–university partnership agreements with Catholic high schools. Going forward, I hope to make these partnerships more substantive. For example, working with high school teachers to develop new educational systems, such as developing teaching materials for IT education or exploring methods for inquiry-based learning.

The second is to increase our intake of international students. We aim to attract talented individuals from across Asia and nurture them into global professionals who can succeed in Japan and beyond. Rather than simply having students study in Japan and return to their home countries, we seek to build a comprehensive support system—from admission to career development—so they can study and find employment in Japan with confidence. We also plan to share these efforts internationally to raise awareness and interest in Sophia University among high-achieving students throughout Asia.

Additionally, we are considering forming a consortium in collaboration with other universities and businesses. As a first step, we will lay the groundwork and begin discussions on what kind of consortium structure would be most useful for students and companies.

Sophia University’s Greatest Appeal: A Place of Learning that Fosters Diversity

At the beginning, I spoke about enhancing Sophia University’s appeal. Personally, I believe Sophia University’s greatest strength lies in its role as a place of learning that fosters diversity—rooted in our founding values of “neighborliness and internationalism.”

Our campus, while not large, brings together students from a wide range of countries and diverse backgrounds. This close-knit environment encourages mutual respect and nurtures a spirit of “neighborliness.” By encountering different ideas and cultures, students can free themselves of rigid preconceptions and develop flexible thinking and communication skills. Immersing oneself in such an environment also helps students establish a firm sense of identity and strengthens their ability to express their thoughts in different languages.

To high school students who are interested in Sophia University, I encourage you to visit our campus in person. We host an open campus every summer, where you can participate in sample lectures, campus tours, and many other programs—including opportunities to interact with current students. I hope you will reserve a spot at the next open campus, and discover the unique appeal of Sophia University with your own eyes.