Yokohama National University continues its unique course with the four spirits of "practicality," "advancement," "openness," and "internationality" as the university charter.The Initiative for Global Arts & Science, which has been the slogan for many years, is also familiar with STEAM education, which has become a keyword in recent years.The campus, which is said to be the size of 10 to 11 Tokyo Domes on a hill overlooking Minato Yokohama, forms a vast green belt together with Mitsuzawa Park, providing a valuable environment for Yokohama City.This spring, Dr. Ide Umehara took over the former president who has been leading the reforms with the idea of "fusion of culture and science".We will further evolve the reforms of both education and research that we have been promoting so far, and aim to reform the student's perspective as << integration of knowledge >>.We also asked the new president, who recalls that the cancellation of the individual examination this spring was "a painful choice," about further reforms toward post-corona and a message to the examinees.
What is a university?
Recognized by the Corona disaster, "University is a community"
2020 was a turbulent year, with online lessons that started by groping.Moreover, there was no clear day, not only forcing students to be inconvenienced, but also for the cancellation of unprecedented individual examinations, which affected students, parents, and high school officials.Also, I don't think I've ever been made to think "what is a university?"
It was heartbreaking for months when there were no students on the main street of the campus, and for the first time in 30 years as a college student, I felt some kind of loneliness.It was frustrating that the university community, which had been taken for granted until now, could not function.I realized once again that a university is a community through education and research.
The same thing was noticed in July of last year when a considerable amount of donations were collected for the scale of the university.With a lot of support from many graduates, we were able to provide a flat rate of 7 yen per person to more than 5 poor students, apart from the subsidies from the government.A university is a community that includes graduates.
This year, the campus has regained some calm compared to last year.Although the number of applicants for the entrance examination, which was worried about, decreased significantly, all five faculties reported that the situation of enrollees did not change compared to the average year.This seems to be in line with the follow-up surveys of prep schools.What was unexpected was that the second recruitment, which was the first in my memory at the end of March, attracted more than 5 applicants to a capacity of 3 people.I realized that the university is supported by a solid group of examinees and how important individual examinations are.
In the next year's entrance examination, we plan to carry out individual examinations as before while ensuring safety and security, but I would like to make use of my experience with Corona's disaster in future university management.In addition, I would like to continue to warmly watch over the current second graders, who are most strongly affected by the corona disaster, from various angles.
