Disclaimer: machine translated by DeepL which may contain errors.
Advisory Council of the Faculty of Science for the academic year 2021 was held
Satoshi Yamamoto, Professor, Department of Physics
Scene on the day of the Advisory Council
The Faculty of Science Advisory Council was held on Thursday, March 3, 2022. The Advisory Council is held every year as a valuable opportunity to hear from professors active in various fields about the current status and challenges of the Faculty of Science as well as its future direction.
In FY2020, the meeting was held online due to the spread of the new coronary disease, but this year it was held in a hybrid format, combining face-to-face and online sessions. All of the committee members listed in the attached table took time out of their busy schedules to participate in the meeting. Among them, Dr. Yukako Uchinaga, Dr. Shigeo Koyasu, and Dr. Maki Kawai visited the Faculty of Science in person for the face-to-face meeting.
The Advisory Council meeting was chaired by Committee Member Masahiko Hayashi. At the meeting, Dean Masahiro Hoshino reported on the current status of the Faculty of Science, its research excellence, and its contribution to society; Vice Dean Shinichi Okoshi reported on the internationalization of Education and Research; Director Atsushi Kawakita reported on the Faculty of Education Council's efforts in the area of Faculty of Education; and Director Kotaro Kawano reported on the gender equality initiatives of the Faculty. Mr. Kotaro Kono, Director of the Gender Equality Office, gave a report on gender equality initiatives. In response to these reports, there was a lively discussion and exchange of opinions, with committee members asking questions even in the middle of the presentations at times.
One of the topics of particular discussion was internationalization efforts. In particular, there was strong interest in the double degree program that has begun to be implemented. The fact that the double degree program has broken through the current situation, in which offers from overseas universities have been received but have not been possible due to the lack of a system within the university, was highly evaluated as a pioneering move that will spread to other faculties and universities. The committee also commented that financial support for international students should be enhanced along with the Global Science Course (GSC) and the Global Science Graduate Course (GSGC), etc. We are grateful for the comments we received. We accept this as encouragement for the further internationalization of the Faculty of Science, and we must make further efforts to achieve this goal.
The second is our contribution to society. We have recently begun full-fledged collaboration with companies such as JSR Corporation and Daikin Industries, Ltd. He said that there is a growing belief that it is unwise for the private sector to conduct basic research in-house, and he felt that companies are becoming more willing to collaborate with universities. The above-mentioned partnerships are currently being established through the development of personal ties, but I think we have a very heavy homework assignment: how can the Faculty of Science support such partnerships, and how can we systematically create new partnerships? In the midst of the demand for diversification of financial resources, it is essential to pursue this direction, and I was very encouraged by your comment that we could "more proactively approach companies.
Another point of discussion was the continuing low number of female faculty members. It was pointed out that both universities and companies are eager to hire more women under the slogan of "women's success in the workplace," but the number of female faculty members is small to begin with, so there is a competition among them. In other words, the small number of female students who go on to study science is an essential problem, and the importance of approaching the junior high and high school level was recognized once again. The question of how to proceed with this is not a matter for the Faculty of Science alone, but for the University of Tokyo as a whole, and I take it as a question of how the Faculty of Science can take the initiative and lead the way.
In addition to the above, I am very glad that we were able to receive valuable opinions on various points, such as the problem of performance evaluation based on the number of papers and the state of financial support for graduate students, in excess of the scheduled time.
The Faculty of Science was asked to accept these opinions and how to reflect them in its management, as was seen on the day of the Advisory Council.
Appendix: List of Advisory Council Members (titles omitted )
Kiyokazu Agata Director, National Institute for Basic Biology, National Institutes of Natural Sciences
Yukako Uchinaga President, NPO J-Win
Maki Kawai Director, Institute for Molecular Science, National Institutes of Natural Sciences
Shigeo Koyasu Director, RIKEN
Kimio Hanawa Executive Vice President President, Yamagata University
Masahiko Hayashi Executive Vice President, JSPS Bonn Research Liaison Center Director
Published in Faculty of Science News May 2022