2004 Kochi University Entrance Ceremony Address
Congratulations to all new students on your admission.
After many years of hard work, your efforts have finally paid off, and the faculty, staff, and current students of this university extend a warm welcome to all of you who have been accepted.
We are also delighted that the family members who attended were so pleased.
As you are aware, Kochi University became the National University Corporation Kochi University on April 1 of this year. You, our incoming students, have been admitted as the first cohort of this newly established National University Corporation Kochi University.
I believe the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology is implementing this sweeping reform of the higher education system—the first of its kind since the Meiji era—because it recognizes that the social environment surrounding humanity in the 21st century is fundamentally different from that of the 20th century. The aim is to revitalize universities—as places for the creation and transmission of knowledge—in a manner befitting the 21st century.
In other words, as the first cohort of students at Kochi University, you are witnesses to the history of Japan’s major higher education reforms.
The corporatization of universities does not mean that universities will change in the same way that the national railways became JR.
From the perspective of education as a human endeavor, I believe universities have both elements that must remain unchanged and those that must change; the question is whether today’s university faculty and staff possess the ability to correctly discern between the two.
In the competitive environment brought about by the transition to a corporate structure, what is being tested is our ability to recognize, distinguish, and implement what must remain unchanged and what must be changed. Consequently, Kochi University is expected to embody its fundamental mission in a more distinctive manner.
On this momentous day as we welcome our first class of students, I would like to take this opportunity to once again call upon the entire university community, as president, to embrace the four Cs: CHANGE, CHANCE, CHALLENGE, and CREATE.
Let us fully recognize the need for university reform demanded by society, view this as a golden opportunity for change, boldly take on the challenge, and work together to create Kochi University—a university that is indispensable in the 21st century.
With this in mind, I want you to be keenly aware that you are not only witnesses to this history, but also active participants in it.
You, the students, are the driving force behind Kochi University. Let us keep the “Four Cs” close to our hearts and, together with our faculty and staff, continue to evolve Kochi University into a place where knowledge is created and passed down, grounded in practical learning. Let us strive to be a university that advances cutting-edge, practical scholarship and research, and produces graduates capable of contributing not only to our local community but also to the wider international community.
From today, you are university students. You are no longer schoolchildren. Schoolchildren are those who are taught and instructed at school, but university students are those who make use of the university to seek out their own challenges and learn on their own. Those who expect to be taught will surely be disappointed.What matters is not what the university does for you, but what you yourselves seek. A university education is not limited to lectures delivered from the podium. There is great significance in gathering with your peers to learn, inspire one another, and engage in discussion.
It is up to you, our new students, and us, the faculty and staff, to ensure that by the time you graduate from Kochi University, our alma mater will have made significant progress.
Along with the Four Cs, as a parting gift to our new students
Turn yesterday’s dreams into today’s hopes, and into tomorrow’s reality
I’d like to offer you these words.
Let us all pledge, each from our own perspective and under our own responsibility, to build a better Kochi University, and let’s start walking together today.
April 9, 2004
Kochi University, a National University Corporation, President Yusuke Sagara