A consortium of professional colleges has been established.

■A consortium of professional colleges has been established.

The School Education Act was amended, and for the first time in 55 years, in 2019, a new type of university ("professional university/professional junior college") was created.

Th iU (Professional University of Information and Management for Innovation), which I opened as president, is one of them. Eighty percent of full-time faculty members are real-world practitioners of the field they represent, and the system of imposing half-year internships on students as compulsory is now possible because of this new scheme, whereby professional colleges are treated as professional universities.

In this way, "professional universities and professional junior colleges" strengthen cooperation with industry and local communities, provide high-quality practical vocational education that responds quickly to changes in social conditions, and develop human resources that contribute to the development of Japan.

Therefore, a professional college consortium was established to share the educational approaches, initiatives, and outcomes of each professional university and professional junior college, further improve the quality of education, and disseminate this widely to the world, and develop and improve upon this.

It will begin as a coalition of 11 professional universities and professional junior colleges nationwide.

Through 1-2 meetings a year, as well as ad-hoc online meetings, we aim to share initiatives and outcomes from these educational bodies and realize improvements in their management and educational approaches. Furthermore, we aim to contribute to the development of professional universities and professional junior colleges by discussing and examining their significance and roles expected of them.

Tokyo Professional University of Health Sciences and iU will be responsible for this secretariat.

At the time of the launch, the symposium was held online out of the iU campus in Sumida Ward.

There were 10 presidents all together.

It was a star-studded group that sent shivers down my back, among them Hiroyuki Yoshikawa (formerly president of the University of Tokyo), president of the International Professional University of Technology in Tokyo; Seiichi Kndo (former director of the Agency for Cultural Affairs), president of the Professional Institute of International Fashion; and Takao Kitabata (former vice minister of the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry), president of Kaishi Professional university.

I'm a youngster by comparison.

I was told to state my aspirations, so I made a comment.

I wanted to create a university unlike any seen anywhere in the world.

This is unprecedented in the world, from the standpoint of a convergence of information + management + innovation. Over 200 companies from within and without Japan have announced themselves as partners, so I can sense there is a need.

Since it is more important to attract the abilities of real-world projects than pure academism in this field, 80% of teachers are actual practitioners of their disciplines. Furthermore, there are over 250 visiting faculty members, which outnumber the students.

We will thoroughly work "with" companies, and create and learn "at" companies.

As an extension of that, everyone aims to be an entrepreneur. All of the students intend to be entrepreneurs.

There is no other precedent like this. The plan was for them to take on the challenge of starting a business when they were in their fourth year, but the first year students are already moving towards entrepreneurship, being very proactive.

If everyone succeeds in starting their own business, the employment rate would be "zero"--so aim for "zero" employment!

Yet 90% might fail. Three years later, some indeed will.

Around that time, we could put up a sign advocating "Failure University," where people learn from mistakes.

Our challenge is a small one. The challenge is how to spread this wave by collaborating with other schools around the world.

We have already begun activities to create communities around universities and high schools that are passionate about entrepreneurship or interested in e-sports.

We are partnering closely with members from professional universities to offer something unique to professional education.