“ACTIVE LEARNING IS KEY”
Kiyofumi Kawaguchi, chancellor of Ritsumeikan University talks about the highlights and benefits of education reforms in Japan
Today, reform at Japanese universities are focused on a ‘shift in the quality of education’. That is to say, a shift from university as a place where professors teach students uni-directionally to a place where students learn among themselves; the ultimate goal of which is to prepare our students for a world of lifelong learning. To realise this, it is important that we place active learning at the center of the curriculum. Specifically, this means introducing education techniques centered on team-oriented problem solving, project-based learning, debate, and presentations.
On the other hand, society, in particular, the world of business, is looking to universities in Japan seeking what are called ‘ global human resources’. These are described as individuals who possess not only foreign language skills but also the capacity to take initiative and tackle problems within foreign and multicultur- al contexts. In other words, our shift in education must occur alongside the globalisation of education.
Until recently, international partnerships in higher education primarily took the form of student exchange wherein the premise is that the participants study within the curricula of the host university. The next step is to shift the quality of such education, and to actualise this we must develop together programmes centered on active learning.
At Ritsumeikan University we are currently implementing two such global joint programmes. The first is the ‘Campus Asia Programme’. In this programme a total of 30 students made up of groups of 10 each from three universities – Guangdong University of Foreign Studies in China, Dongseo University in South Korea, and Ritsumeikan University – spend three months at the campus of each university living and studying alongside each other over the course of two years. The second programme is a joint course that started this academic year involving several member universities of the ASEAN International Mobility for Students Program or AIMS programme, namely the University of Indonesia, Gadjah Mada University and the Bandung Institute of Technology of Indonesia as well as Mahidol University and Thammasat University in Thailand. The course utilises ICT such as video on demand and online technology and is centered on project-based learning PBL.
While there remain many issues, such as differences in credit systems and academic calendars across countries, students remain eager and we have high hopes for the educational value of this shift. Going forward, Ritsumeikan University plans to take such efforts to greater heights, and furthermore, to see the realization of joint programs with universities in Europe, America and Asia.