2013 New Year's Greetings

January 7, 25 Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology Naga Matsunaga Kore

Happy New Year, everyone.

In a normal year, at the end of the year, the government's budget for the next fiscal year is finalized, and the amount of the university's operating expenses subsidies is revealed, but the budget proposal has not yet been finalized due to the general election and the change of government.

Last year, despite the extremely difficult financial situation, thanks to the efforts of the faculty and staff, the building of our university was improved and the project was adopted. At the Fuchu Campus, the seismic retrofitting of the Building 6 and the Academic Affairs Building has been completed. At the Koganei Campus, we were able to reopen the Nature and Science Museum. In addition, I was selected for the Program for Leading Doctoral Education, which was my long-awaited program. The program aims to establish a practical science Leading Graduate School that supports green and clean food production through the fusion of agriculture and industry, and plans to spend more than 3 billion yen over seven years to provide integrated graduate school education for five years and send doctoral students to companies.
In addition, the introduction of a tenure-track system, which is part of the development of young human resources, has taken root, and tenure-track Associate Professor and Assistant Professor have been adopted as operating expense grants. Seven outstanding researchers were selected as tenure tracks. In addition to the start-up's research funding, these researchers received support for personnel and research expenses for five years.

Education and research are also progressing smoothly, and we are not facing problems such as a decrease in the number of applicants for admission to the undergraduate school, serious employment problems, and a decrease in the rate of filling the quota for doctoral programs. In April, we started a Cooperative Department of Veterinary Medicine with Iwate University. In November, we held Parents' Day for the first time throughout the university, and a large number of parents attended. Parents of students, who are important stakeholders of the university, were able to observe the field of education and research and exchange opinions. The plan to apply for at least one Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research per year, which is listed in the second phase of the Medium-term Objective ? Plan, has been successfully achieved. In the future, I would like to take on the challenge of large-scale Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research and focus on increasing the acceptance rate.

On the other hand, we have reduced salaries for the reconstruction of the Great East Japan Earthquake. In addition, a bill to revise the retirement allowance for national public servants was passed by the Diet, and in response to this, we have decided to implement it at our university. Faculty Member hope that you will understand that this is because we are in a situation where we cannot further reduce our research expenses and operating expenses.

Currently, the national university corporation is entering the second Medium-term Objective period, and there is a need to redefine the mission in each field. This year, the missions of each university will be redefined in the fields of engineering, medicine, and education, and next year it will be held in other fields, including agriculture. Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology aims to realize a sustainable society based on mission-oriented education and research based on its basic philosophy. As a unique national university corporation consisting of agriculture and engineering, we are engaged in education and research activities that can contribute to the construction of a safe and secure society and the development and creation of new industries. In redefining our mission, we would like to emphasize that we are an engineering school with agriculture and an agricultural science school with engineering. For nine years, from undergraduate to doctoral programs, I would like to make it my goal to develop human resources who can take on innovation in the future. For this reason, we plan to further strengthen our cooperation with industry. In addition, we will promote personnel system reforms and tenure-track systems for Faculty Member, which are responsible for education and research, and continue to actively recruit female Faculty Member. In addition to accepting international students from overseas, we believe that the development of global human resources through overseas dispatches, mainly graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, is also an important issue.

In closing, I would like to conclude my New Year's greeting by wishing this year a new year of development for Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology and wishing all the faculty and staff a wonderful year.