TUFS Participates in the Second General Assembly Meeting of the Association of Institutions of Higher Education of the Russian Federation and Japan
October 2, 2019
On Monday, September 23, 2019, the Second General Assembly Meeting of the Association of Institutions of Higher Education of the Russian Federation and Japan (also served as the Eighth Japan-Russia Rectors' Conference) was held at Moscow University in Russia under the theme of “Human Resource Development for Japan-Russia Economic Cooperation and Personnel Exchange”. Vice President MATSUKUMA Jun (for international affairs) and Specially Appointed Professor ARAI Shigeru (TUFS coordinator for the Inter-University Exchange Project [Russia]) visited Russia and attended the general assembly.
The Association was established in December 2016 following the signing of a memorandum of understanding on the “Association of Institutions of Higher Education of the Russian Federation and Japan” between Russian and Japanese representatives of higher education institutions with the aim of strengthening inter-university exchange between the two countries. The Association's general assembly is held every 18 months on a rotating basis between Russia and Japan. Following the first meeting in Sapporo in May last year, this year the second meeting was held in Moscow. 21 universities from Russia, including Moscow State University, which provided the venue for the conference, as well as representatives of Japanese and Russian companies and students participating in the Russia-Japan Student Forum (four from TUFS, including three long-term exchange students who had just arrived in Moscow), attended the conference, bringing the total number of participants to about 150.
In the guest's opening remarks, hopes were expressed for closer cooperation between Japanese and Russian universities and extensive student exchanges in the future. Afterwards, each participating university reported their activities in the plenary session in the categories of human resource exchange, medical health, and regional development. Vice President Matsukuma, on behalf of TUFS, gave a presentation titled “How TUFS encourages student interaction between Russia and Japan” in the human resources exchange category, where the status of the Inter-University Exchange Project’s “TUFS Japan-Russia Student Mobility Program: Creating Business Networks and Fostering Human Interaction” was reported. Following this, the representatives of the students who participated in the Second Russia-Japan Student Forum presented their action plans for the future expansion of the forum.
Lastly, there was a summary of the discussions held in the plenary session and the following topics were revised: the establishment of a joint office of Hokkaido University and Moscow State University, “Human Resource Development for Japan-Russia Economic Cooperation and Personnel Exchange" and the "Study in Japan Global Network Project", joint research through the "Committee for Personnel Exchanges", "Student Union" and “Specialized Sections and the Steering Committee for Specialized Sections”, academic exchange including young researchers, and the promotion of interdisciplinary and industry-academic collaboration. The next general meeting (early 2021) was also decided to be held at Niigata University. A joint communiqué was signed by President Victor SADOVNICHIY of Moscow State University and President KASAHARA Masanori of Hokkaido University and was later approved.
