Commencement Address for the 2010 Academic Year, Kochi University Graduate School
To all of you who have completed your studies at the Graduate School of Kochi University and received your degrees, I offer my heartfelt congratulations and express my high hopes for your future.
What does the society you are about to step into expect of you?
We accept you with the expectation that you have acquired the fundamental intellectual skills through your studies at a prestigious institution. Specifically, we expect you to demonstrate the ability to carry out activities that are considered routine in a knowledge-based society: identifying problems, devising plans to solve them, conducting experiments, analyzing the results from a contemporary perspective, and presenting your findings to the world.
While today is a difficult time for young people seeking employment, there has never been a time when the shortage of talent has been so loudly emphasized. To confront head-on this peculiar reality—observed not only in Japan but throughout the international community—and to create a new social order for the 21st century, we cannot do so without the healthy energy of your youth, which has mastered the fundamentals of intellectual work mentioned at the outset.
As true elites who have graduated from this prestigious institution, I issue this presidential proclamation in the hope that you will excel in every field, approaching your work with deep reflection rather than being swayed by frivolity.
March 23, 2011
Kochi University (National University Corporation)
President Yusuke Sagara