President Seike participated again this year in the World Economic Forum (WEF; often referred to simply as Davos) as a representative of Japanese university presidents. The Swiss city of Davos hosted the forum from January 17 to 20. One of the main topics at this year’s meeting looked at how economic powers and developing countries can face common problems together to stimulate the global economy and maintain continued development of society. Among the issues discussed, leaders of various fields agreed on the importance of educating those who will shoulder a new society in preparation for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is being driven by progress in technological innovation such as AI.
The Global University Leaders Forum (GULF), a meeting for university presidents, was held on January 18. There were 26 universities represented at this forum and President Seike participated in discussions on the issues universities face due to the continuous advancement of technology as well as on the future management of universities. On the 19th, President Seike led an industry-academia discussion titled “Defining a Research Agenda to Shape the Digital Economy.” At this session, participants discussed how achievements from collaborative research between industry and academia can be widely made use of in the digital economy. Furthermore, on the same day, in an interview after the “Insights from inside the World University Rankings” session, President Seike said that today, when everything is changing rapidly, the most important contribution universities can make to society is to cultivate youths who can adjust to these changes, and that universities can adequately fulfil this task.
Times Higher Education interviews President Seike (starts at 2:37)
World Economic Forum website