Hokkaido University

Hokkaido University was founded in 1876 as Sapporo Agricultural College-the nation's first institute of higher education to award bachelor's degrees."Boys, be ambitious!," the phrase Dr. William S. Clark, the first Vice-Principal, was quoted as saying to his students before leaving Sapporo, is well known among the Japan' youth and also serves as Hokkaido University's maxim.Hokkaido University upholds "The Frontier Spirit," "Global Perspectives," "All-round Education" and "Practical Learning" concepts that have been developed over its history of more than 130 years as the basic philosophies of education and research. Currently, all the faculty members, students and graduates are making concerted efforts to transform their campus into a global base for education and research.Improvement and Internationalization of EducationHokkaido University has been developing internationally minded allrounders by having them acquire expertise and make proactive and comprehensive personal development through general and specialized teaching as well as graduate education.In addition, while stepping up efforts to offer attractive educational and research programs, we are striving to become a global educational and research center by realizing the "strict evaluation of learning results" and "courses respecting the requirements for credits more strictly," promoting education in foreign languages, and building an advanced human-resource development system that can compete in the international arena.Internationalization of ResearchHokkaido University is strengthening the foundation of education and research by placing an increased emphasis on graduate education. At the same time, we are making our educational and research organizations more efficient by promoting further flexibility in the organizational structure of graduate schools and advancing a faculty and graduate school framework that is aimed at conducting pioneering and interdisciplinary research and education.Through such initiatives, we strive to create new research bases with interdisciplinary projects, provide lectures in foreign languages and accept competent international students to further our development into a university open to the world and a global center for education and research.Partnership with SocietyHokkaido University is developing a host of projects intended to enhance public awareness of this university: the utilization of the Tokyo and Beijing Offices as the bases for transmitting information to society and promoting exchange activities with local communities; the improvement of its websites and public relations magazines; public relations activities, including the Open Campus for high school students and the dissemination of information on entrance examinations; the organization of the Extension Lecture Programs; and the improvement of the Open Course Ware, in which course materials are made available to the world.In addition, we plan to further enhance and utilize bases for joint projects and research with local communities and industries, including the Creative Research Initiative "Sousei" and the Management Center for Intellectual Property and Innovation, to share the fruits of our research activities and strengthen cooperation with society.Challenges in the 130th Anniversary of the University's FoundationAiming to take more initiative and become more self-reliant than ever, Hokkaido University established the "Hokkaido University Frontier Foundation" on the occasion of the 130th anniversary of its foundation in 2006, so that the university would not only redouble its efforts but also receive extensive support from enterprises, individuals and alumni.The Hokkaido University Frontier Foundation aims to make the university contributable to local communities and the international society. To this end, the Foundation will strive to improve educational and research bases and, among other things, conduct student support activities for the purpose of developing excellent human resources.With your generous cooperation, Hokkaido University is committed to carrying out further visionary university reforms and upholding one of the university's fundamental philosophies-the frontier spirit.