Message for Asian students at ISATE2010

1.Introduction
　Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! First of all, on behalf of the Institute of National College of Technology hosting this symposium, I would like to express my sincere welcome to "ISATE" in Kagoshima, Japan. The participants are not only from some Southeast Asian countries, including Singapore and Japan, but also from various countries of the world. I thank you for your cooperation, and I hope the symposium will be a great success.
Here, I'll start my lecture "KOSEN: Its Importance and Role Now and in the Future".
　KOSEN, national college of technology, its system was established in 1961, in response to a strong demand from industry, and have contributed to the development of Japanese industry, especially in the field of manufacturing technologies. During fifty years so far, KOSENs have followed the history like this, and approximately 300 thousands have graduated, contributing actively both in the industrial and academic sector.
　In the last part of the 20th century, science and technology developed the industry and economy. And they brought the rapid progress in human activities, at the same time, large distortion in many aspects of our lives. Today, human beings face many serious problems in global-level, such as environment problem, energy and resources, population, foodstuff and others. We are also living in the borderless and highly information-interlinked world. Our world is ever more globalized and knowledge-based.
　 　Under these circumstances, higher education institutes are required to be a stronghold of knowledge toward sustainable development in the 21st century. KOSENs, its establishment is generally evaluated as successful and education system highly acclaimed by society. However, in order to foster a practical and creative global engineer, local and global citizen, KOSEN should go back to the basis and aim to heighten its role for society.
　I believe that KOSEN that trains practical and creative engineers under close cooperation with the industry is able to contribute to the students from developing countries and the countries themselves. KOSEN has played an important role not only in economic and technology-based national development in Japan, but also in the Asia.

2.Development of society
　Before beginning today's main subject, I'll talk about "development of society". Society is a group of persons living together, creating knowledge, and cultivating publicity and culture under the surrounding nature. Society is composed of the industry, school, and government sectors, and citizen. They make activities each other with partnership in the fields of economy, education and politics. These are the definition of the Society.
　Creating of knowledge is categorized into natural science, human science and social science. Above all, natural science was very powerful, and human being called homo faber, especially create and deepen knowledge, and has applied them to technology. Namely, human being advanced the science and technology by his intellectual curiosity and creativity, developed industry and economy through pursuing wealth, and devise the life and culture for getting convenience. Thus society has made spiral progress through the chained processes of science, technology, industry, economy, life of citizen and culture.

1)the past
　This shows the development of the science, technology and industry in the past. In the later part of the 18th century, the Energy Revolution occurred due to steam engine invention by James Watt. And industries of manufacturing and mining were induced by mechanicalization of the textile industries.
　1878, this year was an epoch-making period in history. Electric light bulb was invented by Edison, electric train was demonstrated at world exhibition in Berlin, and experiment of arc lump was succeeded in Toranomon, Japan. Thus, secondary sector of industry such as transportation, communication, service et al appeared, and society started walking up toward the modern industrial society by introducing infrastructure of electric energy system.
　And today, we are living in highly sophisticated ICT age.
　

2)today- facing serious problems -
　Today, we, human beings are facing many serious problems.
　Energy and resource exhaustion, environmental destruction, global warming, lack of foodstuff and water: these are very serious and complicated problems, in relating not only with each other but also directly with population increase. Keeping biological diversity, world culture and natural heritage, and preventing the propagation of infection, disease, BSE, influenza, disaster, et al should be tuckled under the international cooperation.
　For the matters such as Urbanization, ICT globalization, market expansion, and other complicated social systems, the international mutual understanding should be essential. Especially, in East Asia which has developed remarkably , each countries share common atmosphere, sea water, climate, history, culture and so on.
　It is also realized that the science and technology being in the lead of the sequential process in society, should have responsibility for the society.

3)the future- toward sustainable development -
　At the 2005 Word Summit it was noted that the harmonization of environmental, social and economic demands were required as the pillars of sustainability.
　For harmonizing three pillars, however, most important is "what should be changed" and "what should not be changed". Global environment, fundamental of society, next generation of children, those are considered to be essential issues of "what should be sustained". In order to attain the objective, the formation of closed loop material-cycle society, knowledge based society and smart-community are most promising issues for "what and how should be changed". Exceeding conventional framework and concept, innovation become the prerequisite condition; international cooperation, regional association beyond prefecture, social security, new publicity and proper concept of ubiquitous.

3.Higher education
1)what institutions should be;
　The scale of Higher Education in Japan has expanded remarkably after the 2nd world war, and provided education to about 50% of the target generation. This means that higher education , university, college, college of technology , is now in the universal access era.
　In Japan, however, the School Education Law still leaves unchanged: "The purpose of university, as the centers of advanced learning, is to provide students with wide-ranging knowledge and to conduct in-depth teaching and research in specialized academic disciplines".
　Many universities have given priority to academic knowledge, but not vocational skill. Under these circumstances, Central Council for Education came out the report, "The Future of Higher Education in Japan". Almost all of institutes changed their form into corporation, and revolution has been promoted to some direction, on the basis of the report.

2)what higher educational institutions should be;
　The mission of higher education institute is education, research, and social service, and institutes are requested to be national center, at the same time regional center. It is not always necessary to be international center, but is expected for having international currency.
　Diverse functions, individuality and distinctiveness are necessary condition for qualification of university to accurately respond to the various needs of learners. Career education is also necessary for various students: regular student, oversea students, recurrent students, and lifelong learners.
　Guaranteeing the quality of higher education in order to maintain international validity will be an important issue. For this reason, third -person evaluation system are necessary.

4.KOSEN Education
1)raison d'etre
　I have just talked about the direction of higher education institutes in the future and stressed the importance of diversion from uniformity to individuality and distinctiveness. Here, I'll talk about raison d'?tre of KOSEN education system.
　In the 2nd medium-term planning starting in 2010, all national university declared the individual different function. KOSEN has been responded to the needs of industries for about fifty years since its establishment, and has shown clear objective and function for society.
　Reformation of education system has been proceeded with the stream of the time: two-year advanced course system, transfer system into university, reorganization of department, and so on. 4 pairs of school were unified last October.
　KOSEN providing diverse carrier-path under these systems, offer double-track education for basic linear system in Japan.
　Today, "Rika-banare" is the most serious children problem in Japan. KOSEN education starting from 15-year old is remarkable evidence preventing against "rika-banare", in other words, flight from science, disinterest in science.

2)Education system
　The education system of KOSEN is schematically shown in the figure. The students are accepted in a regular course at the age of 15 and engaged in intensive engineering education. About 60 % of graduates find employment and 40 % of them go on to a two-year advanced course, or transfer to a university to get a bachelor's degree. Some of them continue their study in postgraduate schools. The variety of carrier path leads to foster excellent practical and creative talents having many possibilities.
　Such an education system has been carried out under the systematized curriculum including experiments and exercise, and are supported by KOSENs characteristic conditions: the high consciousness and excellence of students, the development of faculties, small classes and detailed teaching, group life in student dormitory, extracurricular activities, international activities internship program and other coop education in cooperation with industries, and so on.

3)Curriculum
　Curriculum consists of the general subjects and the specialized subjects, and is designed in wedge-shaped arrangement to promote students for understanding the relation between the basic science and engineering. General subjects are composed of basic science such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology et al, and liberal arts concerning languages, social studies, and the other physical education. Basic science is so important as base of engineering, and the education is carried out by introducing experiments and practice.
　Specialized subjects on engineering are introduced from the first grade to motivate students to be engineer, and gradually increase as the curriculum proceeds to a higher grade. Hands-on learning is introduced in lower grade, such as manufacturing practice, design and drafting, and so force. Skill training at early ages through hand-on learning inspire students to understand manufacturing and production.　The subjects of practical engineering related to industries and the practice on the industrial site are introduced in higher grade. Through these experiences, the students educate to be an engineering technologies as well as science.

4)Realization of education
　The main goal of education is to ensure that students truly understand what they have learnt and are capable of applying it. This might be called "Realization of education" and its way may be categorized into following three types: Realization by own-learning, Realization by curriculum organization, Realization through extra-curricular activities.
Realization by own-learning 　KOSEN encourages students to study for themselves by adopting courses where one credit is earned through 45 hours of study, including 15 hours of class study and time for preparation and review. Setting an upper limit to the number of credits for which students can register (the cap system)is also effective. In addition, KOSEN stimulates students' motivation to study by introducing the grade point average (GPA) system.
Realization by curriculum organization
　Here, I would like to give an overview on the realization and the practical nature of KOSEN's education, in relating with the students' abilities fostered thereby.
　□In basic science classes for physics, chemistry, and mathematics, experiments and exercises are conducted and help students deepen their understanding and cultivate a solid basic ability.
　□In specialized classes, engineering practice and experience programs are introduced and such topics as engineering design, project-based learning (PBL), and internships are provided, sometimes in cooperation with companies. This approach contributes to the realization of technology-based, technology-oriented engineering education, and fosters the practical ability and problem-solving ability that are required at actual workplaces. Such measure also enhances students' motivation.
　□Arrangement of basic subjects and specialized subjects in a wedge shape, increasing the proportion of specialized subjects along with the progress of the courses, effectively develops students' improving ability and applying ability.
　□Further, in the advanced course, students acquire a comprehensive ability that covers all areas of science and technology through classes on intellectual property, management of technology (MOT), engineering ethics, legal engineering, and social engineering, and by learning about corporate needs and CSR through industry-academia collaborations.
Realization through extra-curricular activities 　Extracurricular activities including robot contests, programming contests, and design contests, allow students to learn about comprehensive science and technology in an autonomous and hands-on manner, by demonstrating their originality and creativity along with the knowledge and skills they have acquired in regular classes. Meanwhile, inter-college competitions provide students with opportunities to identify the level of their abilities and make further progress, while being stimulated by others.

5)Fostering engineers
　Engineering, which specializes in the study of methodologies, needs to be based both on science and technology, and such engineering should be regarded as the subject of engineering science. By learning from both lectures and practices on engineering science, students are expected to receive truly realized education, and develop into professional engineers.
　Engineering practition covers wide range job, and is categorized by definition, technician, technologist and engineer. According to the Washington Accord, an "engineer" is characterized by his/her ability to apply scientific knowledge and create new concepts for technology, a "technician" by his/her physical skills obtained through training and experience, and a "technologist" by characteristics lying between these. Generally, KOSEN graduates are positioned as "mid-level engineers," and have been called "technologists" due to their practical ability to become immediately effective in the workforce.
　KOSEN graduates, who have studied engineering science based both on science and technology, and who at the same time have learned how to practice it, make true engineers, and their various abilities demonstrated in their subsequent diverse career paths have been well proven.

6)Student development and character formation
(Higher education)
　Higher education, provided to about 50% of the target generation, serves as a major arena for fostering professional workers and citizens who support society in the 21st century. In order to prepare for working in society, students part from uniform elementary and secondary education, select a path from diverse choices, and establish themselves as individuals by acting on their own initiative. The author calls such growth of students "student development" (SD) [1].
　In elementary and secondary education, students are under various restrictions, both in terms of lifestyle and their involvement in society, and their school work is bound by the Course of Study. This resembles a flow within a narrow pipe. Individual students would be aligned, just as particles flowing in layers.
　In contrast, in higher education, students learn in classrooms, repeatedly study by themselves, and learn social norms while being exposed to local history and culture, and they live as citizens. In a pipe where the settings for schoolwork, lifestyle, and involvement in society expand dramatically, the fluctuation of particles that had previously been restrained is suddenly amplified, and the qualities that had been latent in individual students reveal themselves.
　Liberal arts education cultivates students' ability to apply and develop the basic knowledge and ideas they have learnt, and helps students acquire views, ideas, and values as they lead their lives involved in society.

(KOSEN education)
　KOSEN students decide on their future direction at the early age of 15, as they finish their compulsory education, and are educated to become engineers over a long period of five years or more in a consistent environment. This means that they start their preparation for working in society earlier than university students. In the process of learning the expertise of technology, such aspect can be found in KOSEN students' lifestyles, which are involved in the local community, and their various other activities. The setting for learning under a systematic curriculum, and the settings extending there from for life in student dormitories and for activities involved in industry, all play an important part in constituting the whole framework of KOSEN education.
　If elementary and secondary education were a narrow space centering on school work with many restrictions, higher education in universities, etc. would be a space where learning, lifestyles, and social experiences spread free and wide. In comparison, KOSEN would be a long stretch of space where learning, lifestyles, and social experiences are under some restrictions but are relatively free. KOSEN students undergo character formation under such moderate restrictions and freedom.
　The senses of norms, regulations, responsibility, cooperation, and ethics are cultivated under the restrictions of group life and relationships with others, while originality and self awareness are autonomously formed during individual student development. It can be said that the senses of independence and autonomy under such restrictions are supported by KOSEN students' sense of responsibility and high awareness of having selected their choice of expertise from among diverse possibilities at an early stage of their lives.