Outline
| Schedule | November 15, 2024 (Friday) 13:10-18:00 (Reception: 18:15-19:30) November 16, 2024 (Saturday) 9:00-12:15 ＊Networking time at the Corporate Booths 11/15日（Fri） 10:00〜18:00（Core Time：10:00〜12:50） 11/16日（Sat） 9:00〜14:00（Core Time：12:30〜14:00） |
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| Venue and Format | Nagoya University, Higashiyama Campus To be held in person. Only some programs on the 15th will be streamed online. The participation URL will be communicated to registrants. |
| Main Theme | “PhDs, Change the Future” |
Naoshi Sugiyama
President
Nagoya University
The challenges facing modern society are becoming increasingly complex, and addressing these challenges requires the development of PhD graduates who possess not only high-level expertise but also a broad perspective and transferable skills. Advanced educational programs, such as “Program for Leading Graduate Schools” and “Doctoral Program for World-leading Innovative & Smart Education (WISE)”, are designed to cultivate such professionals. The impact of these programs is already transforming graduate education as a whole.
The PhD graduates nurtured through these programs are achieving remarkable success in various fields, both domestically and internationally. Their areas of activity extend beyond academic research to include industry, government, startups, and more. These developments not only enhance the quality of PhD graduates but also shift the societal perception of them. There is a growing interest among companies and various organizations in hiring PhD graduates, reflecting a reevaluation of their value. It is now widely recognized that the utilization of doctoral human resources is essential for innovation in Japan. In March of this year, the “Task Force for the Promotion of Doctoral Human Resources in Society,” chaired by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, compiled the “Doctoral Human Resources Action Plan: Let’s Get a Doctorate.
The main theme of this forum, “PhDs, Change the Future,” aims to inspire current PhD students to learn from the success stories of graduates from these advanced programs and to concretize and expand their own career and research visions. Additionally, this forum provides a valuable opportunity for corporate representatives and the wider public to understand how PhD graduates can contribute to society. We particularly hope that it will deepen the understanding of how the high level of expertise and the problem-solving ability, and diverse skill sets of PhD graduates can contribute to the future development of society.
We strongly hope that this forum will help to deepen mutual understanding between PhD graduates and society, and that PhD graduates will become a powerful force in transforming the future of society.
Akira Fujimaki
Vice President and Executive director for Education and International Students
Director of 2024 Forum for Graduate School Educational Reform Project
Nagoya University
We are facing a complex web of challenges, including climate change, emerging infectious diseases, global population growth alongside Japan’s population decline, resource depletion in energy, food, and water, and ongoing wars and conflicts.
In our globalized society, what may seem irrelevant to you actually affects your own daily life. In order to confront these problems, it is essential to collaborate with doctoral personnel in all fields who possess a high level of expertise and rich imagination.
Based on these backgrounds, the theme of this year’s forum, “PhDs, Challenge the Future,” was established to provide following two opportunities. The first one is, provide an opportunity for participating doctoral students to think deeply about how their research can contribute to future society. Through this process, we hope that students will consider what is lacking and with whom they should collaborate in order to approach their own vision of society. Second, it is an opportunity to take the first step toward realizing this goal. I hope that seeing the activities of other doctoral students and alumni in this forum will inspire you to challenge yourself beyond the boundaries of conventional research. I believe that the activities of doctoral personnel are the driving force that will create the future. We will be very happy if this forum will give you the courage to move on to the next stage.
