EVP Kitano attends Presidents' Forum, USRN meeting in Hong Kong (7 and 8 December 2017)

发表日期

2018/01/18

On 7 December, Dr Masao Kitano, executive vice-president for education, information infrastructure, and evaluation, attended and delivered a speech at the Presidents' Forum, held at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU).

Organized by PolyU as part of its 80th-anniversary celebrations, the event brought together 22 presidents and vice presidents from 22 higher-education institutions in 14 countries and regions to present speeches and hold discussions exploring the "Transformative Power of Universities for Our Future".

EVP Kitano's presentation highlighted the ability of universities to transform society through education, and Kyoto University's commitment to "training and producing leaders capable of creating positive changes". As examples, he cited some of the community-focused projects that had been undertaken by the Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI) and the Graduate School of Education, the former involving local residents in disaster education and awareness activities, and the latter in addressing classroom problems in local schools. He explained that these and numerous other collaborations between the University and local communities encourage student participation, and inspire those taking part to reflect on how they can contribute to solving social problems.

On the following day, EVP Kitano joined Dr Toru Iiyoshi, assistant to the executive vice-president for education, and director of the Center for the Promotion of Excellence in Higher Education, to attend a regular meeting of the University Social Responsibility Network (USRN), of which Kyoto University is a member. Together with other university representatives, the two engaged in an animated discussion on USRN's future activities.