NEWS

1 January, 2015 KORENAGA Shun President, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University

Happy New Year.

In 2015, APU will celebrate its 15th anniversary. Last year, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology selected APU and 36 other universities for the Top Global University Project. I believe we were selected in recognition of the role we have played in leading the globalization of Japan's institutions of higher education over the past 15 years as well as for the bold plan we outlined to turn our world-leading multicultural campus into a community for Global Learning over the next 10 years. Above all, I am happy to share with you the news of our selection as one of Japan's top 37 global universities, but this is only the first step in the next phase of our history.

This year, our Business Unit (i.e., APM and GSM) aims to formally obtain accreditation from Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, an international accrediting body for business schools. Distinguishing ourselves from other universities and improving the quality of our teaching and research by way of these objective evaluations will help us establish our identity.

Amid the tumult of the present era, higher education around the globe is under pressure to reform,  but one of APU's high ideals—Freedom, Peace and Humanity—is increasingly becoming a universal value. At APU, students are exposed to foreign cultures on a daily basis, and they develop an awareness of themselves in relation to others. The APU campus, where freedom is honored and numerous cultures coexist in friendship and peace, is a beacon for the future of human civilization. This year, APU will take the first step toward its dream of becoming a global standard.