Notes from the President

This spring, APU launches a total of 699 graduates into various walks of life. It gives me great pleasure to share this memorable occasion with our soon-to-be graduates, their family & friends, and our distinguished guests.

Through student life at APU, you were able to determine the course of your lives and decide on your future paths. Today marks your entrance into the wider world. Although each of you will be continuing down a different path – some of you finding employment at a company, others continuing on to graduate school, and still others starting their own businesses – I wish you all much happiness as you continue down the paths you have chosen.

APU already has 6 Alumni Chapters within Japan and 17 more around the world. I hope that you all become part of these communities in order to support each other and expand the APU network around the globe. APU students have two wonderful mottos: “We can do it” and “We are APU”. I believe that it is the empathetic and sensitive spirit that APU students share that is at the root of these mottos. By spending your student lives at APU – this multicultural environment where students from around the world gather, where you respect each other’s cultures and histories, where you stand on the same ground and think and act together – you have gained experiences that give these mottos their meaning. Behind these words lies your ability to feel – it is this ethos of “we can feel it” and your empathetic and sensitive spirits that have given rise to these mottos. All of you already have the answer to the question of what it means to have a “global mind”.

Now that universities around the world are subject to the free market, students are free to study at any university of their choosing around the world. As an international university in Japan, it is natural that English-Japanese bilingualism stands as the pillar of our education. However, for students to choose to continue their education at APU from among the universities of the world, we must overcome the competition and further increase the quality of our English-Japanese bilingual education. Just as you all have to battle setbacks and disappointments in your own lives, so is education and learning a battle that must be fought. This year, we have entered the final stage of a six year-long process to receive accreditation from the AACSB, an international business school accreditation organization.

We have also made considerable achievements in the many international programs we have established since our founding. Internationally, universities commonly make reference to the fact that they are ranked in the top hundred or two hundred in the world university rankings. Universities’ overall strength primarily as research institutions is evaluated in these rankings, but in the future an increasing emphasis will be placed on rankings which judge universities by category as well. Although APU specializes in a smaller number of fields, we will strive to reach the top of the rankings in international business and other categories.

Currently, APU is made up of students hailing from over 80 countries and regions around the world, and 20% of domestic applicants are from the greater Tokyo area. All those who studied in APU’s world-class international atmosphere have a “global mind” with the capacity for empathy, and it is this global mind which gives you the power to transform this chaotic world. I hope that this spirit will continue to quietly shine forth in each of your individual lives. Once again, I congratulate you on your graduation.