Message from the President

"Look at the World, Start with the Community"

President
Hiroshi Sameshima

　The University of Miyazaki (UoM) is a comprehensive national university that consists of the faculties of Education, Medicine, Engineering, Agriculture, and Regional Innovation. As the primary intellectual hub in Miyazaki Prefecture, we view our contribution to and deep ties with the local community as integral to UoM's own future as a university. At the same time, we strive to provide education of the highest quality to our undergraduate and graduate students, while conveying our achievements in the realm of education and research to the rest of the world, starting with our global partners. At the core of these activities is the firm belief that our university has a leading role to play on both the domestic and international stage.

　UoM's innovative activities encompass education, research, community health care, and contributions to the local and international community. One characteristic of those activities is our promotion of interdisciplinary research and education that spans different academic disciplines in order to build partnerships aimed at meeting the needs of our region. Examples that typify our unique approach include the establishment of the Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Agriculture and Engineering and the Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine. In addition, UoM leverages its position as a comprehensive university to pursue interdisciplinary research in many fields. In particular, an emphasis is placed on research in the fields of life science, environmental science, food science, energy science, and science in the field of symbiosis. Our belief is that such research spanning multiple disciplines makes it possible to address the complex and diverse problems of the contemporary, which in turn contributes to the building of a more sustainable society that is in harmony with the local community.

　In 2021, we formulated our future vision for the University of Miyazaki for the next ten to twenty years. In so doing we raised the aim as an institute of higher learning to foster the sort of leaders who will be able to respond to a new society and creative innovation based on unique perspectives. Our vision also clearly indicates the intention to continue our efforts as a regional university to solve the sort of problems on the local and global scale that correspond to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) despite Japan's aging population and declining birthrate that is reducing the number of new university students.

　It also clearly states that even with the declining birthrate and aging population, and a declining population of 18-year-olds, we will continue our efforts as a regional university to solve global and global-scale issues as indicated in the SDGs, while fostering young human resources. However, we recognize that predicting the future, even in the short term, is difficult.

　Meanwhile, the digital transformation of society through ICT and AI has created a new era in which it is possible to obtain the latest information from anywhere on the planet and to advance international collaboration through online conferences. In such an environment, it is important to not only adopt a broad, global view but also seek to bring significant changes to the world by means of smaller, focused efforts that improve daily life in the local community. This is precisely the philosophy expressed by our university slogan: "Look at the world, start with the community." Our aim, in other words, is to pursue education and research that starts from an awareness of what might seem trivial, everyday matters in order to bring the sort of positive changes to human activities that will contribute to significant improvements in the world.

　As we move forward in the years ahead, the University of Miyazaki will continue to be a thriving institute of higher learning that maintains strong ties with the local community as it pursues the mission of fostering the sort of human resources who will be capable of leading their communities and being globally active.