Message from Director of Global Exchange Office

I am Daisuke Tsuruta, appointed Director of Global Exchange Office this first year of “Reiwa”. I am both humbled and honored to take over from my intellectual and sophisticated predecessors, Dr. Shin Nakagawa and Dr. Akihiro Odanaka.

These days we have been hearing more and more the words “Internationalization” and “globalization”.
These words remind me of Japanese people who use of English in an effort to positively connect with Caucasian people. As such, we are enthusiastically taught English from early childhood. However, the majority of international students are from China. There are also many students from the other Asian countries such as Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia. In fact, less than 10% of international students at Osaka City University are from Europe and America. In light of this reality we should focus first on Asian countries.
From a demographic perspective Asia is the most populated continent, with also the biggest gap between the rich and the poor. To put it another way there is a lot of potential in Asia. Our aims are to establish more ties with universities in Asia, to accept more students by expanding double degree programs, and to increase short-term and long-term study abroad and research exchange opportunities for students at Osaka City University. Chinese and Korean will possibly become must-learn languages. However, English is the only language that has gained the status of an international language; thus, English education is emphasized as the communication tool at Osaka City University.

Even if we make overseas training mandatory, we will still need to address issues of finance and securing quality housing. It is also our responsibility to prepare software that will step-by-step make these a reality.

Our university will integrate with Osaka Prefecture University under the name “University Public Corporation Osaka”. Some international activities at Osaka Prefecture University and Osaka City University have the same goal while the others differ. I believe it is also my duty to discuss with the global exchange office at Osaka Prefecture University whether we can solve them through mutual concessions or change them into something with more potential.

Without your cooperation it would be impossible to solve these issues and make our dreams a reality. Thank you for your support.

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Daisuke　TSURUTA
Director, Global Exchange Office
Specially-appointed Vice President of Osaka City University