Message from the President

　The mission of universities is undergoing great changes. While the aggregation of knowledge obtained through research activities is at the core of society, universities must always keep their eyes wide open to the outside world to solve new challenges, and leverage the knowledge and practical abilities that their direct connection to society produces. It is essential for universities to continue to evolve by offering education and research of ever-higher quality, and to become a persistent and positive driving force that helps society.

　The Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT) is determined to become a university that promotes autonomy with the conviction and foundation of a national university, enhances humanity in terms of intelligence, sociability and ethicality, and proactively paves the way for sustainable development in collaboration with other institutions and international and regional society. It is vital for students and faculty to continue to shine by deepening their scientific inquiry through learning and practice that respects freedom and diversity. They also need to link to changes in the world, imagining an ideal new world and taking action to make it real. TUAT’s chief purpose as a university is to kindle creativity and curiosity in students, and equip them with the abilities they need to succeed in the fields of science, technology and business.

　The education we provide is designed to create new ideas and value, as well as to foster the fundamental traits of respecting the individuality of others and demonstrating their own creativity. We accomplish this through lectures, experiments and practical training sessions that form the basis for the logical thinking abilities of our students and stimulate their creativity. We provide a university education that offers knowledge based on a foundation of public interest, transparency, internationality and ethicality, so that students can share the knowledge they gain with society. We want our students to become generous people full of passion and courge, who can make proper value judgments, maintain self-control, act in a trustworthy manner with society’s approval, and with persistence. All of these qualities should be rooted in an acknowledgement of the importance of people.

　In our research activities, while validating the reason for our existence, students will achieve results that excel in originality, driven by an intrinsic motivation to engage in spontaneous and creative activities. Even in the competitive research realm, we believe that constantly and vigorously pursuing intellectual production activities based on this mental uplifting is the path to becoming a premier research university. We also need to promote these activities in our collaborative research with industry and public institutions, based on a common goal as true partners sharing the task of influencing what society can and should become.

　I believe that creative activities approached through responsible education and research that match society’s grand goals form the touchstone by which a university’s contribution to the future will be measured.

CHIBA Kazuhiro     President, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology