Kyushu University

On our 100th anniversary in 2011, Kyushu University raised the slogan "Breakthrough Top 100 University" to leap into the top hundred universities in the world in all fields. Our basic philosophy is to "continue autonomous reform as well as to ensure an international quality of education, and to become a center of research and education of the highest standards, full of vitality, and constantly addressing future challenges."

Kyushu University's strength as a key university is that researchers conduct creative, basic academic studies in a wide range of fields on the basis of their intellectual curiosity. A broad foundation for academic research enriches cultural and social life, becomes the motivational force for innovation, and has allowed us to boldly face up to once unimaginable global environmental issues, to our current resource and energy problems, and to the pathology and treatment of incurable diseases, which has led to many great achievements. Focusing once more on these fundamental values of academic research, we will strengthen the support system to further develop it.

In academic research, we will become the driving force for contact between different fields in order to develop new frontiers. We aim both to promote highly specialized academic fields as well as to integrate and fuse these academic fields into a greater whole.

For areas that are expected to lead to outstanding world-class research achievements, we will aim for further heights and place an emphasis on supporting these fields to form a world-class research center, actively promoting cutting-edge research that leads to solving the problems that humanity faces and by proposing and demonstrating new social systems.

Science and technology, including the humanities and social sciences, all support social and economic development. In addition, modern times require people who can play an active role in a globalizing society and economy. Such persons need to develop basic knowledge across the humanities and sciences as well as interdisciplinary thinking skills for problem-solving and the ability and attitude to autonomously continue learning to identify problems and find solutions. Communication skills are also essential to cooperate and build good relationships with people holding different values, and this includes foreign language proficiency. Kyushu University aims to develope such skills in its students, and by actively promoting study abroad in its core education departments and the new departments that are being prepared, we will train active learners with high international awareness.

Kyushu has been the gateway to Japan for receiving continental civilization since ancient times and has fostered a local culture with tolerance for different cultures. In addition, the campus is located in the very area that first took up continental culture, and it is surrounded by the rich nature of the sea and mountains. Students develop in this rich cultural and natural environment, with excellent teachers in education and research, a cosmopolitan student body, and a wide-ranging interaction with people in the local community and in local industry; they will become independent and develop into future leaders of society.

With the low birthrate and aging population, it is critical to develop industry and employment opportunities in order to develop and pass on a rich culture underpinned by vibrant economic activity. Kyushu University will contribute powerfully to the creation and development of local industry by leading innovation in science and technology. In recent years, science and technology innovation has been applied rapidly and implemented in society through wide-ranging interactions between universities, industry, the public sector, and the private sector. As seen in our research on hydrogen energy and social information infrastructure, Kyushu University contributes to regional vitalization by becoming a core of open innovation and by promoting a strong cooperation between industry, academia, the public sector, and the private sector.