INTERNATIONALIZATION. During the week Gothenburg was visited by a delegation from the Japan’s Kyushu University for discussions about how collaboration between our universities can be extended. In connection with the visit, a letter of intent for future collaboration was signed by Masato Wakayama, vice president of Kyushu University, and Agneta Holmäng, dean of Sahlgrenska Academy.
Kyushu University has had a well-functioning collaboration with Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg (GU) since 2009, and this agreement marks the beginning of a process to expand the collaboration.
“We are very pleased to be able to formalize collaboration with Kyushu University, which we believe will be of benefit to both parties. It fits well with our strategy for international collaboration to extend our exchanges at all levels with a high-ranking university,” said Dean Agneta Holmäng in connection with her signing of the agreement.
“This visit to Gothenburg has been fruitful. We look forward to expanding our collaboration in research as well as in several educational programs at the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels. I believe our exchanges in the future can produce good results and also contribute to a positive development in the world around us,” said Masato Wakayama, vice president of Kyushu University at the signing.
Focus on innovation
The letter of intent that was signed is a first step toward more in-depth collaboration and provides the preconditions for our future exchanges of both students and teachers. It’s anticipated that several programs will be covered by more detailed agreements to be drawn up at a later stage, but initially the exchange applies to innovation – on Sahlgrenska Academy’s part, the master’s program in business creation and entrepreneurship in biomedicine.
“Japan is an important global player for our students and also for our teachers, and we’d love to be able to offer exchanges through internships and other knowledge transfer in the country. The fact that we now are formalizing our collaboration with Kyushu University has led to an increased Japanese interest in us, and we now are in touch with several major universities that are very interested in the competence available at Sahlgrenska Academy within innovation interwoven with education,” says Karl Maack, head of the Unit for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
Japanese and Swedish higher education institutions now also are more closely connected with each other through the MIRAI project. It is a network with funding from STINT in which Kyushu University is one of the eight Japanese universities and the University of Gothenburg is one of the seven Swedish universities participating. MIRAI’s overall aim is to more closely integrate Swedish and Japanese research, innovation and education in the fields of aging, material science and sustainability.
Similar to GU
Kyushu University has many similarities with the University of Gothenburg. Like our university, it is large and spans the entire academic field – from pharmaceutics, medicine and odontology to the natural sciences, law, economics, the humanities and design. It was founded more than a hundred years ago, and until now it has grown by merging with several smaller university colleges. Kyushu University is located in the far west of the Japanese islands on Kyushu. Its proximity to major Asian cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong has imparted a strong international orientation to the university, and even though Japanese is the main language in undergraduate studies, a series of programs also are taught in English. The university has 28,000 students.
The visiting delegation from Kyushu University consisted of Professor Masato Wakayama, vice president of Kyushu University and chairman of its Global Innovation Centre; Professor Hiroyuki Ochiai, School of Science; and Professor Yuichi Harada, who is director of the Global Innovation Centre at Kyushu University. Those participating from Sahlgrenska Academy were Dean Agneta Holmäng; International Director Gunnar Tobin; Karl Maack, head of the Unit for Innovation and Entrepreneurship; and Ida Mattiasson, international coordinator at the Sahlgrenska Academy Secretariat.
TEXT AND PHOTO: ELIN LINDSTRÖM CLAESSEN
