From the Dean

DETEY, Sylvain Dean/Professor School of International Liberal Studies, Waseda University

Since its launch as a pioneering English-mediated school in 2004, SILS has been quite unique in many ways, always at the vanguard of higher education in Japan. It has brought together the solid foundations, international reputation and extensive network of Waseda University (founded in 1882 by Shigenobu Okuma, who later served as prime minister of Japan) with the vibrant dynamics of its highly diverse body of scholars, internationally recognized for their contributions to research and education. This multidisciplinary combination—between the national and the international, the past and the present—has proved more than successful: for almost 20 years now, SILS alumni have gone on to build their lives and careers in various countries and fields, pursuing remarkable trajectories after their studies at SILS, in areas ranging from international finance to medicine, law, academia, IT, media, entrepreneurship or governance, to name just a few. What originally began as an educational adventure has turned into a highly respected school throughout Japan and beyond. 

In SILS, students can receive what is often described as a well-rounded education, rooted in the humanist tradition: the arts and sciences, languages and communication skills, critical thinking abilities, cultural literacy, intellectual ethics and integrity, as well as a multifaceted quantitative and qualitative understanding of the world in its historical, sociological, political and economic complexity. This education is shaped by a combination of individual choices, corresponding to the students’ interests and needs, and structural principles designed to help our students gradually acquire a specific domain of expertise connected to real-life complex environments.   

Drawing on a range of disciplines across our seven clusters, SILS students gradually specialize in one or more fields through our concentration and seminar systems, while cultivating the plurilingual ability to communicate with members of different linguistic and cultural communities, in English, Japanese and more. They interact with faculty members and students from all over the world, in Japan with fellow SILS students from around 50 countries and a yearly cohort of around 300 exchange students from our 800 partner institutions worldwide, as well as outside of Japan during their study-abroad experience, making the most of what Waseda, as the most international university in Japan, has to offer. Compulsory statistics, data science, English, Japanese and foreign language education, together with access to courses offered in other Schools in Waseda and opportunities for double or dual degrees with prestigious institutions abroad, strengthen SILS students’ capacity to shape the direction they want to take for their future career, with the support of their academic advisors and the Waseda Career Center. In that sense, SILS can be regarded as an academic springboard for our students to become who they want to be, and go where they want to go, exploring multiple options, including internships, professional networking and social activities, through Waseda students’ clubs and alumni associations.           

While the world keeps on transforming itself at a rapid pace, SILS maintains its educational vision: to connect classical training in academic disciplines with an updated understanding of technological and sociopsychological developments across nations, to ensure that our students can remain clearsighted and autonomous in their decisions and initiatives when confronted with challenges and uncertainty. In SILS, we offer a Japan-based international education combining intellectual rigor and humanistic vision, to help our students find their places in the world. We wish to encourage them to lead the world in the right direction, without forgetting the complexity of the relationship between right and wrong, while being able to solve problems without creating new ones. Hence SILS’ motto, calling for collective and individual enlightenment rooted in knowledge and reason, from the Roman poet Horace to Immanuel Kant: ”Sapere aude” . 

Dare to know, dare to be wise.