University of Tokyo, Japan—Mission Statement

Future Perspectives for Engineering Education toward Global Engineering

 

Globalization in social and industrial activities is rapidly becoming very popular in Japan. Compared with ten years ago, Japanese manufacturing companies have changed their business activities in various respects, such as increases in international sales/production, joint activities with foreign companies and foreign employment. In spite of those changes, the speed of change in about business processes and human mindset are very slow in reality.

In globalized companies, such as automotive and electronics companies, engineering activities are now jointly performed among international members, and tight integration across the boundaries becomes common. However, the traditional Japanese style of engineering is still not well systematized and cannot be taught efficiently, such as implicit communication among engineers, active collaboration between design and manufacturing divisions, strong motivation for seeking quality, etc.

Social and educational renovations for catching up on such globalization trends in industry are far behind in Japan. Now it is an urgent issue to renovate Japanese educational systems into the following directions:

• New target of engineering education in global engineering.
• Systematization of engineering education curricula for product development. 
• New educational methods for project-based collaboration.
• Introduction of new subjects related to globalization, etc.

Considering such situations as the background, appropriate topics will be deeply investigated by industrial survey and academic discussion. By discussing these globalization subjects with universities worldwide, the core discipline for global engineering can be made clear, and global education in universities is expected to be improved for the new generation of engineers.

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