The solution proposed by Sophia University is a program en-titled Professional Studies, commencing in 2020. A “demon-strable education” is being offered to working professionals in collaboration with business, in the interest of promoting continuing education and career enhancement.Terumichi explains the most important aspects of the new initiative. “The program is not yet in the finished form we are aiming for. We are providing a platform for industry-ac-ademia collaboration that will continuously evolve through discussions between a number of companies and Sophia University as equals.”The core participants in Professional Studies are the compa-nies that have committed to the project as “Advisory Partners (AP)” – 15 firms as of October 2019. These APs have the right to send employees to a certain number of lectures and seminars at Sophia. They can also take part in planning and proposals for upcoming years through discussion with the university and fellow APs.“As far as I know, there are no prior examples of this kind of industry-academia collaboration in Japan. It is very rare to have a forum for free discussion of the future of human resources for business among companies of different sectors and industries,” explains Terumichi.The chemical reaction between academia and diverse per-spectives in the world of business has resulted in a totally new educational program, and hopes are high for the content and methodologies that will come out of it.However, is there a risk that conflicts might arise among this group of commercial enterprises over the content of the program they desire, resulting in a loss of consistency or quality across the pro-gram as a whole? The president admits the pos-sibility, but is optimistic. “If a company has made the decision to partici-pate with full understanding of our protocol and with the sincere intention to face its own future, then it should try to use as a beneficial stimulus the ideas and topics from companies in other industries and the university that go beyond its own as a company. If it only wanted to deal with ideas that lie within the scope of its expectations, then there was no need to invest in this program to start with.”In this increasingly data-driven age, amid accelerating change in every sector, is it true that the human resources that companies must secure, if they are to survive, are people who can best exploit big data using AI?President Yoshiaki Terumichi responds: “Today, as a civiliza-tion, we find ourselves on the verge of unsustainability. If you are aware that the time has come to rethink what it means to be human, the important thing is not ‘how’ to get AI to give you the answer you want, but ‘what’ to ask of AI in the first place. If people are not educated with the ability to ask ben-eficial and effective questions of AI, and of themselves, they cannot be entrusted with the future of human civilization.”The values, ethics, and creativity that need to be cultivated are collectively referred to by Terumichi as a “demonstrable education.” Learning today must not stop at the professional specialization that forms the basis of each individual’s role in society. Rather, it must also guide the person in the right direction, in the context of that specialization.Graduates with such an education are in high demand across a range of industries. One reason for this is that in the quest to solve global issues facing humanity, as summarized by the SDGs, hopes are increasingly focused on international busi-ness players operating across borders, rather than on politi-cians amid the rise of parochialism around the world. Another is that meanwhile, if companies do not have a weather eye on the right path forward for their business, they run the risk of contributing to the cheerless future that is feared.What Is the Ideal Education for Future Leaders in the Business World?The Creation of an Educational ProgramThrough Collaboration between Sophiaand the Business World18Approach
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