新年明けましておめでとうございます。オミクロン株の蔓延や、さらに新たな株の出現などが危惧される中ですが、宮崎国際大学の皆様と新しい年を迎えられたことを嬉しく思います。昨年は、着任して、右も左もわからない中を多くの教職員に助けられ、勉強させて頂きました。心から御礼申し上げます。さて、2022年度は、私にとって本学に着任して初めて迎える新年でございますので、今年の抱負を述べさせて頂きたいと思います。
本格的少子化が進み、国立大学も推薦枠を拡大する時代に突入しました。昨年の4年制私立大学の５０％以上、2年制短期大学８０％以上が定員割れを起こし、定員充足した大学のほとんどは中央の大学でした。地方で、特に学生定員の小規模大学は大きな打撃を受けました。この状況は今後も、持続的に進行し続けると予想されています。一方で、大学院修士課程の入学者数は全国で1,040人増加すると言う不思議な現象も起こっています。
ところで、本学は小規模な大学ですが、「山椒は小粒でもぴりりと辛い」を目指し、学生一人一人を大切に、手塩にかけて育てることを特色としています。これは全国でも大変誇れることと思っています。そして、その成果が福田学部長・副学長を中心とする教育学部の先生方による「教員採用率８６．９％達成」だと思います。また、国際教養学部ではパッソス学部長を中心に、学生の英語力（表現力、コミュニケーション力など）の向上に努め、学生のTOEICの点数が入学後に急激に上昇しているのも、手塩にかけて育てている証かも知れません。教職員皆様の頑張りには敬意を表します。
さて今年の抱負ですが、まずは、昨年から継続している大きな2つの改革を達成しなければなりません。この2つは宮崎国際大学の今後に取って、非常に大事なものと決意を新たにしています。一つは国際教養学部の３つのコース設置です。国際教養学部の早瀬教授を始め、ワーキンググループの先生方、さらには多くの先生方の力で、ぜひ成功させて頂きたいと思います。この改革では、本学の特徴でもあるCLIL教育をグローバルリベラルアーツコースで維持し、これが本学国際教養学部の目玉であることには変わりありません。この本学のCLIL（Contents Language Integrated Learning）教育はわが国の最先端を行く教育モデルとして、新たな展開と波及を仕掛けたいと思っています。国際ビジネス・マネジメントコースは、低学年では日本語と英語を併用した基礎教育を行い、高学年では英語による国際ビジネス・マネジメントを学ぶことで他大学の同様な分野との差別化を期待しています。英語教育コースでは、中高の英語教師、あるいは小学校教員を養成しますが、これが成功すれば、非常に大きな武器を得ることになると期待しています。
この国際教養学部の改革が第1の改革とすれば、第2の改革は大学院修士課程（国際言語学コースと国際文化学コース）の設置です。現在、香川さんと二人三脚で最終案作成に向かって取り組んでいます。成功すれば令和5年4月の設置となりますが、今年の秋には学生募集と入試を行わなわなければならず、やはり今年が勝負の年と言えます。国際言語学の修士号と国際文化学の修士号は九州圏内では極めて少ない学問領域の学位称号であり、近年、その需要は益々高くなっています。恐らく完成年度以降には定員増に持って行けると予想しています。
ところで、今年は、東南アジアからの留学生の受け入れ増を仕掛けたいと思っています。コロナ禍で留学生確保は思うようには行きませんが、他大学と競合しない今こそ仕掛けることが大事で、数年後の入学者増を目指せば良いと思います。インドネシア、ベトナム、タイ、台湾、フィリピンの高校には、皆さんが思っている以上に日本の大学に直接入りたいと思っている学生がたくさんいます。しかし、我が国の大学では、日本語で授業を行います。そのため、どうしても日本語学校を経由し、日本語をマスターしてから留学することになり、大半の方は、それを無駄なお金の支出と考えています。そのために、彼らは日本以外の英語圏に留学します。本学の様に入学時から英語での授業でしたら、彼らには魅力があると思っています。
さて、この他にも、教育の質の向上、文科省への概算要求、中学・高校との連携、県・市・町村への地域貢献、企業との連携、交換留学制度の拡大、キャンパスデザイン整備、職場環境改善、他様々なことに頑張らなければなりません。もちろん、このような活動は教職員の方々全員の協力が無ければ達成できません。改革は今までの業務に、余計な仕事を加えることになり、多くの方にとって厳しい状況を生み出すことは周知の事実です。多くの教職員の方々にご迷惑をおかけすることは大変申し訳なく思います。それでも、この年頭の挨拶を書いたのは、私自身に覚悟を迫るためと思っています。
最後に、皆様、今年もどうぞ宜しくお願い致します。本学の職場が、皆さんにとって、できる限り、楽しく、そして豊かな心になる様に頑張りましょう。
New Year’s Greeting for 2022
Noboru Murakami
President
Miyazaki International College
Happy New Year to you all. Despite fears of the spread of the Omicron strain and the emergence of other new strains, I am pleased to be able to start the new year with everyone at Miyazaki International College. Last year, having just arrived at my new position and when I did not know much, I was helped by many faculty and staff members and learned a lot from them. I would like to express my sincere gratitude. Now, as this will be my first New Year since arriving at MIC, I would like to express my aspirations for the year ahead.
With the birthrate declining in earnest, we have entered an era in which even national universities are expanding their recommended student quotas. Last year, more than 50% of four-year private universities and 80% of two-year junior colleges were not able to fill their capacities and most of the universities that filled their capacities were those which are located centrally. Universities in rural areas, especially those with small student capacities, were hit hard. This situation is expected to continue in a prolonged manner. On the other hand, there is a strange phenomenon that the number of students enrolled in master’s degree programs has increased by 1,040 nationwide.
Although we are a small institution, we aim to be a “Small but spicy Sansho (Japanese pepper)” college, and we take good care of each and every one of our students. I believe this is something we are very good at and be very proud of even among all the Japanese universities. I think the result of this is the teacher employment rate of 86.9% achieved by the faculty of the School of Education, led by Dean/Vice President Fukuda. In the School of International Liberal Arts, Dean Passos and his team have been working hard to improve students’ English skills (expression, communication, etc.), and the fact that students’ TOEIC scores have been rising rapidly after entering MIC may be evidence that we are taking good care of them. I would like to express my respect to the faculty and staff for their hard work.
As for my aspirations for this year, first of all, we must accomplish the two major reforms that have been ongoing since last year. These two reforms are very important for the future of Miyazaki International College, and I have renewed my resolve. One is the establishment of three courses in the School of International Liberal Arts. With the help of Professor Hayase, members of the working group and others of the School of International Liberal Arts, I hope that we can make this a success. In this reform, CLIL education, which is one of the characteristics of our college, will be maintained in the Global Liberal Arts Course, and this will remain the main feature of the School of International Liberal Arts. This CLIL (Content Language Integrated Learning) education is at the frontier of educational models in Japan, and I would like to set up new developments and spillover effects. In the International Business Management Course, 1st and 2nd year students will receive fundamental education in both Japanese and English, and in 3rd and 4th year, students will learn international business management in English, which we hope will differentiate our course from similar courses at other universities. The English education course is to foster junior and senior high school English teachers and elementary school teachers, and if this is successful, we expect to gain a mighty asset.
If the reform in the School of International Liberal Arts is the first reform, the second reform is the establishment of the Master’s Course (in International Linguistics and Intercultural Studies). Currently, Ms. Kagawa and I are currently working together on the final draft. If we are successful, the program will be established in April 2023, but we have to start recruiting students and conducting entrance examinations in the Fall this year. This year indeed will be a critical year for us. The Master’s degree in International Linguistics and the Master’s degree in Intercultural Studies are two of the very few academic degrees offered in Kyushu, and the demand for them has been increasing in recent years. We expect to be able to increase the student capacity after we see the first completion of the 2-year program.
I would also like to increase the number of international students from Southeast Asia this year. Although it is difficult to secure foreign students due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I think it is important to start now, when we are not competing with other universities, and we can aim to increase the number of students in a few years. There are much more students in high schools in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan, and the Philippines who wish to enter Japanese universities directly than you may think. However, in Japanese universities, classes are conducted in Japanese. Therefore, they inevitably have to first go to Japanese language schools and master the Japanese language before being able to enter Japanese universities, which most of them consider as a waste of money. For this reason, they study abroad in English-speaking countries and not Japan. If the classes are taught in English from the moment they start the university, as they are at our college, I believe it will be appealing to them.
In addition to the above, we have to work hard to improve the quality of education, make budget requests to MEXT, collaborate with junior high schools and high schools, contribute to the local community through the prefectural, city, and town governments, collaborate with companies, expand the exchange program, improve the campus design, improve the work environment, and so on and so forth. Of course, these cannot be accomplished without the cooperation of all of our faculty and staff members. It goes without saying that reform will add extra work to the existing work and create a tough situation for many people. I am very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause to many of our faculty and staff. Nevertheless, I believe that the reason I wrote this New Year’s greeting is to force myself to be prepared.
Last but not least, I very much look forward to working with you all this year. Let’s do our best to make MIC a workplace that is as enjoyable and enriching for you as possible.
