May 25, 2015
Keio University's Faculty of Policy Management, Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, and Graduate School of Media and Governance have signed a cooperation agreement with Doshisha University's Faculty of Policy Studies and Graduate School of Policy and Management. This agreement aims to contribute to the further development of both universities by mutually cooperating and utilizing their outstanding achievements in education and research, their track record of collaboration with local communities, and their potential in these areas.
A signing ceremony for the cooperation agreement between the two universities was held at the Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC) on May 15. The ceremony was attended by Akira Imagawa, Dean of the Faculty of Policy Studies and the Graduate School of Policy and Management, and Kiyoshi Yamatani, Director of Academic Affairs of the Faculty of Policy Studies from Doshisha University, and by Ken Kawazoe, Dean of the Faculty of Policy Management, and Taro Ozawa, Assistant to the Dean of the Faculty of Policy Management from Keio University.
It seems that Yukichi Fukuzawa and Joseph Hardy Neesima, the founder of Doshisha University, never had the chance to meet in person. However, records show that when Neesima passed away, Fukuzawa mourned his death in an editorial in the "Jiji Shimpo" newspaper, lamenting the loss of a "true man of independence." Neesima's death anniversary is January 23, 1890, and in that same year, Keio University established Japan's first private university college, comprising the three departments of Literature, Economics, and Law. One hundred years later, in April 1990, the Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC) was established. This year marks its 25th anniversary, and a grand ceremony is scheduled to be held on October 10. It is deeply moving that, coincidentally, a cooperation agreement between the two schools is being signed in such a milestone year, perhaps as a work of fate.
The campuses of Keio's Faculty of Policy Management, Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, and Graduate School of Media and Governance, and Doshisha's Faculty of Policy Studies and Graduate School of Policy and Management have a high degree of affinity, as both aim for interdisciplinary education and research and emphasize problem discovery and resolution. Going forward, they plan to continuously explore specific forms of cooperation, including exchanges between students and faculty members.