Tohoku University was founded in 1907 and is one of the largest and oldest national universities in Japan with five campuses in Sendai. Its mission since its foundation has been to prioritize research and openness through its “Research First” principle and “Open Door” policy,and it is internationally recognized for outstanding standards in education and research. The University emphasizes research useful in solving societal problems, and educating human resources in leadership skills. The university currently has 11,000 undergraduates, 4,500 in Masters programmes, and nearly 3,000 in Doctoral programmes. It has 10 Faculties and 60 Graduate Schools. Its overseas students total 1500, 85% of whom come from countries within the Asia and Pacific region relevant to ProSPER.Net.
In responseto the increasing concerns over environment and sustainability in post-graduateeducation, the University established the Graduate School of EnvironmentalStudies in 2003. Faculty members from engineering, science, social science, andcultural science gathered to work on common research and education targets inEnvironmental Sciences. The graduate school was formed to help build a sustainable society, and help solveenvironmental problems and harmonize the global environment by providing thenecessary human resources.
A recent initiative very relevant toProSPER.Net, is the Strategic Energy and ResourceManagement and Sustainable Solutions (SERMSS) education programme which wascreated in July 2010. A key component of this is the EnvironmentalLeader Program which is designed to nurture environmental leaders who haveadvanced expertise in the fields of energy, resources and water management; andalso possess practical and comprehensive abilities to develop policies andplans for a sustainable future.The objectives are to contribute internationally by helping develophuman resources which can help meet the challenge of environmentalsustainability in both Asia and Africa. This programme has already establishedrelationships with other Asian universities, and annual International Symposia onEnvironmental Leaders are held with representation from universities fromChina, Korea, Indonesia and Vietnam. The Environmental Leader Programme is thusvery relevant to ProSPER.Net with its own and broader network, and we lookforward to working with other Members of the Network.
For further information please visit the university’s website.