Message from Director Professor Yoshihiko Hirotsu

Osaka University, established according to the expectations of Osaka's original cultures is going to have it's 80-year anniversary in 2011. During these years, the wave of globalization has propagated more rapidly than we expected. It is now inevitable for our country to receive this wave of “Globalization”, our  second cultural wave since the Meiji-Restoration.

 We need to gain the ability to cope with foreign countries on  the basis of our high standards of science and engineering, economy and historical cultures. For our next stage, international education and learning are becoming more important in the university. Osaka University will send many students and researchers to foreign countries and will at the same time accept many students and researchers to realize an international-level university. This must be connected with a realization of our university motto ”Live Locally, Grow Globally”.

Under these circumstances, foreign centers of Osaka University have important roles in realizing this globalization. As of March, 2011, our university has 31 Inter-University Agreements and 128 Inter-Faculty Agreements with EU universities. Our Groningen Center will further strengthen our support for student and researcher exchanges between Osaka University and EU universities and research institutions, under a strong cooperation with Groningen University. We will also support interactions with Osaka University alumni members in Europe.