Waseda University is undertaking further enhancement and expansion of its research and education, and the promotion of greater social contribution through the pursuit of three major objectives implicit in the school ideals:
Challenge: Timely, Innovative Research Deep Integration of Lifelong Learning Education of Global Citizens.
In recent years, competition among universities has grown ever more intense, extending beyond national borders and regions. In order to rank among the world's leading institutions, a university must demonstrate strong individuality and presence. Distinctive character must be shown in various aspects, especially eminent research, attractive education and the world-wide gathering and dispatch of a variety of talent. However, since there are both financial and personnel-related limits to what a single university can do, it is important to achieve stable strength through multilateral cooperation with other universities, making good futuristic use of each other's strong points. Therefore, as proposed in the executive board's foundation concept for its Grand Design for 21st Century Education and Research (May, 2001), Waseda has been striving to cultivate human resources who can undertake global missions, offering international level research content and education and constructing global academic research networks. In addition, Waseda University, being situated in Asian society, has historically had close relations with other Asian countries: Waseda had its first Korean graduates in 1897 and established a department to accept students from Qing in 1905. Waseda has been producing prominent human resources not only in Japan but also in neighboring nations in Asia. With this background, we plan to evolve from ad hoc internationalization on the individual level to organizational and sustainable internationalization in order to realize Co-creation of Academic Excellence in the Asia-Pacific Region[1]. At the same time we aim to be a world-class education and research institute, a university of distinctive presence, displaying international leadership as an academic hub in Asia, by fortifying our partnerships with influential universities in Asia. Based on the concept of internationalization of education[2] which has been a growing focus at Waseda, we intend to take on international research development as a pivotal activity.
[1] Co-creation of Academic Excellence in the Asia-Pacific Region: Constructing a network linking various regions, organizations and universities and collecting a wide array of wisdoms, in order to as a unified group realize a peaceful and affluent 21st century world.
[2] The Internationalization of Education: activities such as building cross-cultural experiences into everyday Waseda campus affairs, establishing undergraduate and graduate schools where students can take courses conducted in English, promoting educational enterprise abroad, and participating in international student exchanges even more actively than at present.
Basic strategy
Aiming at establishing itself as an academic hub in Asia, Waseda will formulate guidelines to promote the international development of strategic research. To that end, Waseda will also design and implement supportive measures for international research development based on those guidelines, and will expand and enhance its centers for research development and the incubation of industries. Based on the notion that the promotion of research is inextricably linked to the development of researchers, we will first support the international development of research, placing emphasis on the Asia region where we already have a history of producing powerful human resources, and will then extend that strategy to other regions. In this way, and using our overseas outposts, we will promote the exchange of research and researchers with overseas research institutes, supporting selective international development in terms of projects and research such as large scale advanced research projects and research in priority fields.
Initially Waseda will set China and Singapore as priority regions for international cooperation. China has historically had a close relationship with Waseda, and Singapore is an English speaking country with high education standards. We will promote multidisciplinary cooperation involving enterprises, regions and governments by deepening cooperation in international joint research and education activities with influential partner institutions, utilizing our existing overseas outposts. Subsequently we will develop cooperative efforts with other Asian countries such as Korea, Thailand and Taiwan, as appropriate. Using this development in Asia as a trigger, we will expand and enhance our cooperation with European countries such as Germany and France, and with the U.S.A. At the same time, in the cutting-edge sciences, individual approaches will be made to Western countries. With regard to the support of international development, theme- and region-appropriate research styles will be adopted. For example, in research on environment or human sciences, we will seek out Asian style research in consideration of regional needs and sensitivities. For advanced science and technology research work on themes such as IT and semiconductors, Western style research, which is based on competition, will be given priority.
As mentioned above, Waseda is aiming to develop an organizational structure which supports rich, diverse international research by means of proactive work such as information sharing and the publishing of research products for research exchange and joint research, primarily through our overseas outposts.
Waseda has already made partnership agreements with more than 500 universities and has been promoting exchanges for some time. Using past exchanges as a base, we plan to work to construct a powerful cooperative network with targeted universities. To that end, we will utilize our existing overseas outposts to assess the geographic, economic and social characteristics of each region, to identify priority activities, and to promote cooperation and coordination with selected universities. Initially deepening our cooperation with top class universities, particularly in Beijing and Singapore, we will focus on exchange in education and research. This will facilitate active human resource exchange and information exchange, and will also fortify the presence of Waseda in those regions. Second, development in regions where Waseda has no established outposts will be carried out in parallel with the first step, with accompanying investigation and analysis to maximize the effectiveness of these important future-oriented measures.
Through the development described above, Waseda aims to construct global partnerships for the promotion of international research.
The establishment of the Institute for Asian Research in July 2005 signaled a greater focus on the promotion of innovative research related to Asia, utilizing Waseda's academic and human resources in the creation of a number of international bases. Bringing together Asian studies researchers both from Waseda and from other institutions, this Institute will form an interdisciplinary base for the construction of human resources networks. A central approach will be the recruitment of primarily young Asian studies researchers in order to develop world-class researchers and opinion leaders.
Moreover, we will enhance these young researchers' international competitiveness in a campus-wide educational program. If these researchers are to be able to conduct joint research with international research institutes or world top-level universities, and to obtain external funding from enterprises (in particular international ones) in the future, it will be necessary to improve their English and core skills such as presentation and communication.
One other key resource is the half million Waseda alumni who are active outside Japan. Through the alumni association, it will be possible to collect and analyze information about matters such as world research trends and local research facilities, and also to secure local support in various regions. In the future, we will focus on the construction of networks with overseas alumni and non-Japanese researchers in our overseas outposts, viewing them as assets of Waseda's key human resource exchange. We aim to build a structured and richly diverse organization, which includes our overseas alumni, avoiding the usual patterns of research and education cooperation which rely on individually initiated, irregular and even accidental formation of cooperative relations.
Waseda will disseminate English documentation about Waseda's research products. For example, the research products and various databases produced in targeted research, such as the 21st century COE program, will be published widely both in Japan and internationally as PR for Waseda's research activities. These publications will work in tandem with activities such as the staging of annual conferences of prominent international academic societies, the support of the joint publication of high quality English academic journals and the production of international journals in Asia.
In order to activate international research, Waseda will share in the multilateral preparation of data, both within the university and with other bodies, rather than focusing solely on research aspects. One specific example: the international exchange data already accumulated over a considerable period by Waseda's International Office will be entered into a database for full use in work towards the development of international research.
With regard to logistic support to improve the research environment, it is necessary to consider support elements such as the production of English versions of Waseda documentation, the provision of researcher support in matters such as accommodation, and the creation of a networking system to maintain relations with overseas researchers who have returned to their home countries. These support elements would also include the promotion of internships in external organizations or international organizations in the interest of improving the command of English of the entire staff and the promotion of staff research in order to increase the number of personnel who can deal with international affairs. In addition, we will create the Office of International Research Promotion website and publicize Waseda's researcher support activities to the entire Waseda staff and to visitors to Waseda.
As well, given the expectation of an increase in global level industry-government-academia collaboration such as joint research and contract research abroad, cooperation with powerful foreign enterprises and overseas technology transfer of intellectual property rights, Waseda's overseas outposts must be improved and expanded.
International Strategy 
Basic principles
Waseda has already made partnership agreements with more than 500 universities and has been promoting exchanges for some time. Using past exchanges as a base, we plan to work to construct a powerful cooperative network with targeted universities. To that end, we will utilize our existing overseas outposts to assess the geographic, economic and social characteristics of each region, to identify priority activities, and to promote cooperation and coordination with selected universities. Initially deepening our cooperation with top class universities, particularly in Beijing and Singapore, we will focus on exchange in education and research. This will facilitate active human resource exchange and information exchange, and will also fortify the presence of Waseda in those regions. Second, development in regions where Waseda has no established outposts will be carried out in parallel with the first step, with accompanying investigation and analysis to maximize the effectiveness of these important future-oriented measures.
The establishment of the Institute for Asian Research in July 2005 signaled a greater focus on the promotion of innovative research related to Asia, utilizing Waseda's academic and human resources in the creation of a number of international bases. Bringing together Asian studies researchers both from Waseda and from other institutions, this Institute will form an interdisciplinary base for the construction of human resources networks. A central approach will be the recruitment of primarily young Asian studies researchers in order to develop world-class researchers and opinion leaders.
Waseda will disseminate English documentation about Waseda's research products. For example, the research products and various databases produced in targeted research, such as the 21st century COE program, will be published widely both in Japan and internationally as PR for Waseda's research activities. These publications will work in tandem with activities such as the staging of annual conferences of prominent international academic societies, the support of the joint publication of high quality English academic journals and the production of international journals in Asia.
In order to activate international research, Waseda will share in the multilateral preparation of data, both within the university and with other bodies, rather than focusing solely on research aspects. One specific example: the international exchange data already accumulated over a considerable period by Waseda's International Office will be entered into a database for full use in work towards the development of international research.