Today we are blessed with the presence of guests from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, related institutions and companies from within and outside of Niigata, overseas partner institutions, and alumni. Thank you for making time in your busy schedules to attend the 75th anniversary ceremony. As president, I would like to express our sincerest appreciation on behalf of Niigata University.
The roots of Niigata University can be traced back to the early Meiji period. It originated from Kyoritsu Hospital established in 1870, the third year of the Meiji Restoration period.? After being reestablished as the Private Niigata Hospital, the National Niigata Medical College was founded in 1910, followed by the establishment of the National Niigata Medical University under the old educational system. Meanwhile, the National Niigata Teachers’ School was founded in 1874, followed by the establishment of the Niigata First and Second Teachers’ Schools, then the foundation of Niigata High School in 1919, the Niigata Prefectural Agriculture and Forestry Special School and the Nagaoka Technology Special School.? After WWII, these higher educational institutions in the region were integrated to form Niigata University as a national university under the new university system based on the National School Establishment Law promulgated in 1949. And this year marks the 75th anniversary since the inauguration of the university.
When it was founded, Niigata University started with six faculties -Humanities, Education, Science, Medicine, Engineering, and Agriculture, each rooted in the above-mentioned predecessor institutions - along with the university library, a hospital attached to the Faculty of Medicine, and a facility to train clinical nurses. In addition to its main campus in Niigata City, the university also had branch campuses in the cities of Shibata, Nagaoka, and Takada. According to records, the admission quota of students for the inaugural year was 1,395 and the number of academic and administrative staff members was 1,491.
Subsequently, the Faculty of Dentistry was established in 1965. The Faculty of Humanities was renamed the Faculty of Law and Literature in 1977 and was then reorganized into three separate faculties of Humanities, Law, and Economics in 1980. The present faculty structure of the university was completed with the founding of the College of Creative Studies in 2017 and reorganization of the Faculty of Economics to the Faculty of Economic Sciences in 2020.
Consequently, it has now grown into a large-scale, research-oriented comprehensive university comprising 10 faculties (Humanity, Education, Law, Economic Sciences, Science, Medicine, Dentistry, Engineering, Agriculture and College of Creative Studies), five graduate schools (Modern Society and Culture, Science and Technology, Medical and Dental Sciences, Health Sciences, and Professional School of Teacher Education), two research institutes (Brain Research Institute and Research Institute for Natural Hazards and Disaster Recovery), the Niigata University Medical and Dental Hospital, and affiliated schools, boasting a current student population of approximately 12,000 and 3,200 academic and administrative staff members.
Over the course of the past 75 years, more than 160,000 students have graduated from the university. We have also been steadily expanding our global interactions and we currently have 366 partnership agreements with 45 countries and regions, and today on this commemorative day, we are honored with the presence of many guests from our partner institutions.
Looking back, we started off as a university three quarters of a century ago in a wooden building with only a few classrooms and laboratory equipment, an extremely challenging environment to pursue education and research. After more than a decade since the founding, in around 1962, we started to consider the integration of the several campuses scattered across the prefecture, but it took until 1982 to complete the integration and relocate all university facilities to the Ikarashi Campus and Asahimachi Campus. It was indeed a huge project spanning two decades from conception to completion and the relocation plan took over 13 years to carry out, all amidst the ongoing student protests sweeping across Japan. I cannot but imagine the hardships and tremendous efforts of the university staff back then.
With regard to changes in educational organization, the Department of General Education was established as an internal measure in 1950 the year after the founding of the university, and was reorganized into the Department of Liberal Arts in line with a ministerial ordinance in 1964 to provide liberal arts education. However, there was a significant change in 1991, with the abolishment of the Department by revision of the University Establishment Standards that required universities to provide liberal arts education by mobilizing the resources of the entire university. Another even larger wave of transformation came in 2004, which was the incorporation of national universities. This marked a historical turning point that forced structural reform to all national universities including Niigata University. This year is the 20th year since the reform.
Upon transforming into a national university corporation, Niigata University defined its philosophy of “Autonomy and Creativity” and articulated its commitment to contribute to both local and global development through its education and research activities. The university was also among the first to introduce the separation of faculty and educational organizations. That is to reorganize faculty-based academic staff organizations into an Academic Assembly comprised of the three institutes of Humanities and Social Sciences, Science and Technology, and Medicine and Dentistry, with the aim of enabling diverse research activities and formation of faculty teams across department frameworks and disciplinary boundaries.
On the other hand, the environment surrounding Japanese national universities since their incorporation has been extremely severe with government grants for management expenses continuing to be cut. Our predecessors implemented constant management reforms and dedicated strenuous efforts to fulfil our mission as a national university rooted in the regional community, and that endeavour continues today. In fact, we may be entering an even more very difficult era.
However, the roles and missions entrusted to Niigata University have not changed since its founding. That is to promote globally competitive research while developing high level human resources rooted in the regional community as a center of excellence of Japan’s higher education, and at the same time to promote social collaboration as a leader tasked with driving the advancement of society.
Based on this, Niigata University formulated Vision 2030 a few years ago to articulate our vision for the near future. It also set “Becoming a front-runner of future life innovation” as the mission of the university to achieve that vision.
We have provided a description of our vision and mission on various occasions, but here again, I would like to explain what we mean by “life innovation.” Our definition of “life innovation” is not confined to the fields of medical care, health, and welfare, but is also innovation that creates new value and meaning of our "existence", "whole life", "way of living", "the ideal society", "involvement with the environment" as well as the bases of these: the earth and nature as we live through the 21st century.? In other words, the life innovation that we pursue is ideas and values that contribute to the happiness of mankind. Under this mission, we are working to redefine education, research, and co-creation with society as the three core pillars of the university’s activities.
As we reach the milestone of the 75th founding anniversary this year, we are looking back on our journey with deep appreciation for the efforts of the past presidents and others who have devoted themselves to building the university, and at the same time, looking ahead into the future of the university.
The 75th founding anniversary is only a milestone on the way towards the future of Niigata University, Japan, and the world. It is our great pleasure and honor to hold this commemorative ceremony today, but as a checkpoint on our path towards the future, it should also be an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to continue taking on new challenges. A university slogan and logo design competition were held as part of the projects to commemorate the 75th anniversary. The newly selected slogan, “New Challenges, Unlimited Contributions” resonates well with the university’s determination to take on new challenges, tackle problems facing the global community, and continue to contribute to the world.
Upon this important milestone, Niigata University will take another bold step forward to the future and forge ahead keeping our aspirations high. As we move ahead on this endless journey, we are deeply grateful for the unwavering support and cooperation of our honored guests and stakeholders.
I would like to close this speech by expressing my deepest appreciation for the support you have extended thus far and by asking for your continued cooperation. Thank you very much.
October 19, 2024
USHIKI Tatsuo, M.D. Ph.D.
President, Niigata University
