This year marks 150 years since the Meiji Restoration. However, Keio University was founded as a school for Dutch studies even earlier during the Edo Period, when the nation was still ruled under a feudal system. We are the oldest institution of modern higher education in Japan and grew together with the country’s modernization.
In the spring of this year, we will unveil a new hospital building on our Shinanomachi Campus, an unparalleled center for medical research and medical care. It is also a momentous year for nursing education at Keio University as it celebrates its 100th anniversary. Furthermore, various innovative projects will be undertaken at each campus. While treasuring and staying true to our core values and traditions, we hope to make this a year in which the university makes its next leap forward.
For a university to keep developing beyond globalization, it must not only conform to world standards, but also possess and maintain its own distinctiveness. A diversity of people from both within and without Japan gather at Keio University, learn in a liberal and progressive atmosphere, and go on to play leading and active roles in all walks of life. This is what gives birth to our uniqueness, and today, our University is highly regarded around the world.
Ambitious endeavors in all areas of education and learning are underway at the university. These include the improvement of integrated education from elementary school to university, interdisciplinary research and education which also embraces the integration of the sciences with the arts, international collaboration in research, joint education and research projects in medicine, nursing and medical care, and pharmacy centered on our hospital, and industry-academia collaborative projects. To ensure their success, the headquarters of the university will also do its utmost to provide the necessary support.
Mindful that none of this can be accomplished unassisted, we ask for your unchanging support and understanding in the year ahead.
January 1, 2018
Professor Akira Haseyama
President, Keio University