Message from the President

OIT President
INOUE Susumu, Ph.D. (Eng.)

Toward the Development of Human Resources Who Can Contribute to Society in This Era of Unpredictability

Since our founding in 1922 as Kansai Engineering Technical School based on the founding spirit of “for the good of the world humanity, and the regions, we shall train people in practical engineering skills backed by theory to be capable of working effectively in the field and on the floor,” the Osaka Institute of Technology (OIT) has endeavored to foster professionals who are full of pioneering spirit, seeking new intellectual and technological creation in response to the demands of society and the times. As we celebrated our 100th anniversary in the 2022 academic year, we have been striving for reform aimed at furthering our excellence and contributing to society.

In the 2016 academic year, OIT was selected for the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Acceleration Program for University Education Rebuilding for our “quality assurance initiatives aimed at student learning outcomes upon graduation,” and we received the highest praise (namely, an “S” evaluation) as a superb example of a pioneering model of adaptation to social demands for our clarification of minimum requirements (minimum qualities, knowledge and abilities to be acquired), visualization of learning outcomes with the Diploma Supplement System (DS System), and promotion of autonomous learning and strengthening of effective learning guidance, etc. We are currently conducting follow-up verification with the aim of further enhancing the quality of the education that we provide.

In addition, OIT was listed for the first time in the “World University Rankings for 2021” published by UK-based higher education magazine “Times Higher Education (THE).” We also made the 2023 list, marking three consecutive years in the rankings. This means that our achievements in the five areas of teaching, research, citations, international outlook, and industry income are highly rated. The fact that we also had the highest number of research projects selected among all universities in Japan at Innovation JAPAN, an online trade fair organized by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), for the second consecutive year gives us the utmost confidence to say that our research seeds are linked to the technical needs of society and we have enormous potential that will bring about development of science and technology in Japan.

The development of digital technology in recent years has been remarkable, and this technology is being applied in all fields. It is far more important than ever for society as a whole to work toward the realization of Society 5.0 and to cultivate human resources who can contribute to society by making full use of cutting-edge technologies and knowledge such as IoT, robots, AI and data science. At present OIT has four faculties: Engineering, Robotics and Design, Information Science and Technology, and Intellectual Property. In the 2021 academic year we added a fifth department in the Faculty of Information Science and Technology - the Department of Data Science. Since the 2022 academic year, we have been working to expand mathematics, data science, and AI education throughout the university and further deepen organic connections between faculties, continuing our efforts to foster “human resources who discover and create leaps in knowledge that are the sources of technological innovation and creation of value, and human resources who connect these technological achievements to societal issues and create new business including platforms (Excerpt from the materials of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister’s Meeting on Human Resource Development for Society 5.0)” necessary for the realization of Society 5.0.

We are in an era of unpredictability; the environments surrounding us are changing day by day as we experience various natural disasters including abnormal weather and the stagnation of social and economic activities due to the spread of COVID-19. Such circumstances require students to have the ability to think for themselves, listen to the thoughts of and collaborate with others, and we at OIT are always working to refine our system so that our students can acquire such abilities not only through classes and research, but also through other creative activities. Thank you for your continued support in these endeavors.

April 1, 2023