University Social Responsibility Summit 2016 held in Beijing (3-5 November 2016)

On 3-5 November, the University Social Responsibility Summit 2016 took place in Beijing, China, with three faculty and three students from Kyoto University attending. The KU faculty were: Professor Masao Kitano, executive vice-president for education, information infrastructure, and evaluation; Professor Toru Iiyoshi, deputy vice-president for education and director of the Center for the Promotion of Excellence in Higher Education; and Associate Professor Kazuyoshi Nishijima of the Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI).

The biennial Summit is organized by the University Social Responsibility Network (USRN), established in 2014 and currently comprised of 14 universities from Hong Kong, China, Japan, the United Kingdom, Brazil, the United States, Australia, Israel, South Africa, and other countries. Members share the recognition that university social responsibility (USR) is of increasing importance to higher education in the face of the myriad challenges for modern society -- economic, social, cultural, and environmental. Member institutions aim to contribute to society by incorporating social responsibility into all aspects of their operations, including administration, education, research, community service, and public relations.

The 2016 Summit was themed "Nurturing a University Social Responsibility Culture", and attended by over 200 faculty and students from more than 25 universities.

EVP Kitano introduced the wide variety of USR activities underway at Kyoto University, while Professors Iiyoshi and Nishijima highlighted efforts related to community engagement and disaster preparedness.

The event also included a "Students' Forum", in which 18 student representatives from each university shared their experiences of social engagement and community service activities. Mr Akinori Miyamoto, of the KU Faculty of Agriculture, discussed his experiences of visiting the Tohoku region following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and of taking part in fieldwork training in a rural area. The other two KU students in attendance were Ms Fei Du, a PhD candidate at the Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies (GSGES), and Ms Natsuki Kishida, who is working on a master's degree at the Graduate School of Engineering, both of whom actively interacted with their counterparts from other universities.