2015 Kochi University Entrance Ceremony Address

　To all those who have been admitted to Kochi University, congratulations on your admission. On behalf of the current students, faculty, and staff, I extend our warmest congratulations and a heartfelt welcome.

　To all parents and guardians, congratulations. We extend our heartfelt congratulations to you.

　I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to all our distinguished guests and everyone involved for taking the time to join us today despite your busy schedules. On behalf of Kochi University, I would like to extend our heartfelt thanks.

　With the admission offers you just received, you have all become members of the Kochi University community.You have all become first-year students in my group—the Wakiguchi Group. The mission of the Wakiguchi Group is to “practice education that takes responsibility toward both students and society,” prioritizing the interests of our students and sending you out into the world with a sense of responsibility. Furthermore, all faculty and staff members are here to serve as surrogate parents, teachers, and friends to you. From now on, please promise me right here and now that you will not hesitate to turn to the faculty and staff for help with anything.

　 You have overcome the intense pressures of the entrance exam period, cleared the high hurdle of Kochi University, and have finally arrived at this day.I offer my sincere respect for the efforts you have made up to this point. At the same time, you must deeply remember and never forget to be grateful that your success today is not only the result of your own hard work, but also the result of the support of many people—including your parents, who have raised, protected, and supported you all this time, as well as your teachers and friends.

　 Now that you’ve entered university, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll graduate on your first try. The real learning begins now. If you can’t adapt to the kind of learning expected of university students—which is fundamentally different from exam preparation—you won’t be able to advance to the next year or graduate.To put it simply, university learning is not the extremely straightforward task of efficiently solving problems with a single correct answer. Rather, it involves seeking the best solution to propositions that may have multiple answers or, in some cases, no answer at all. It requires you to identify problems on your own, acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and strategies through self-directed learning to solve them, and develop the ability to demonstrate the rationale behind your conclusions and communicate them effectively to others.It is essential to constantly ask yourselves, “Is this really the right approach?” and “Why is that so?” and to deepen your discussions. By doing so, you will master the kind of learning that takes place at a university—not just in school—and you will be able to transform yourselves from pupils into students.

　While universities offer both liberal arts education and specialized training, deepening your knowledge in a specific field requires acquiring a broad and solid foundation of academic skills and general knowledge—much like the vast foothills of Mount Fuji. In other words, to study a specialized field, you also need a wealth of knowledge outside that field.I urge you to explore what you should learn, how you should learn it, and what you should strive to achieve. The rich cultural literacy and foundational knowledge you acquire in this way will integrate with your specialized academic studies, transforming you into the kind of talent the 21st century demands. I want you to take this moment to remember that there is no learning that is useless once you enter society.

　Kochi University is a university funded by the taxpayers’ money. You have been recognized as deserving of an education thanks to substantial support from national tax revenues, and you have secured that right. This is a privilege granted only to prospective elites.By studying at Kochi University, I expect you to cultivate a strong sense of pride and a rigorous sense of ethics. As servant leaders, I hope you will reflect on how to learn and how to give back to society, thereby embodying the spirit of noblesse oblige—a quality that can be considered a prerequisite for leadership.

　To all new students in the Faculty of Community Collaboration and the Early Childhood Education Program in the Faculty of Education: You are the proud first cohort. You are pioneers and, indeed, challengers. While you have the support of faculty and the local community, pioneers face hardships and great joys that only they can experience.With motivation and a spirit that finds joy in everything, you can accomplish anything. In the sense of being challengers, all of you new students who have just stepped into the unknown territory of university life are challengers. Please enjoy your time at university.

　Finally, there is a Chinese poem that begins with the lines, “Youth fades quickly, but learning is hard to attain; do not take even a moment of time for granted.” The passage of four or six years goes by much faster than one might imagine. With the hope that you will cherish your time, I offer you the following words as my farewell address as president.

　 "Water is a gift of nature, and time is a gift of the universe. Those who treat water carelessly will suffer from hunger, and those who disregard time will lose their way."

　The word "to be lost" can mean either wandering aimlessly because you’ve lost your way, or being in a tangled, chaotic mess where nothing seems to work out. It implies that simply wasting time will not solve anything. We must always act within the constraints of the time we have.

　 "Those who treat water carelessly will go hungry; those who disregard time will lose their way."

　My friends, make the most of your time to learn and to grapple with challenges. Do not rush, do not be arrogant, do not lose heart, and do not give up.

　Congratulations on your admission.

April 3, 2015
Kochi University
President Hiroshi Wakiguchi