Dr. Akito Arima speaks at Okinawa Employers Association
On February 8, 2011, Dr. Akito Arima, Co-chair of the OIST Board of Governors, gave a talk at a monthly meeting of the Okinawa Employers’ Association. About 110 people came to the event, filling a hotel reception room in
Citing statistics from several international surveys, Dr. Arima explained that what appears to be a large decline in the level of academic achievements by Japanese schoolchildren over the past few decades is in fact an inaccurate interpretation of the survey results. Pointing out that the number of participating countries in the surveys has increased, Dr. Arima said the decline relative to the increased pool of other countries is only modest and that the actual performance level of Japanese students has not declined. He did point out, however, that while Japanese children have great understanding of and interest in science and technology, the degree of the interest starts to wane as they grow older, underlining the importance of higher education. Concerning the national competitive grant for scientific research, Dr. Arima hailed the enactment of the Science and Technology Basic Law in 1996, saying that the grant has steadily increased from a little over 50 billion yen in 1989 to 260 billion yen in the proposed Fiscal Year 2011 national budget.
Dr. Arima further discussed higher education in
In closing, Dr. Arima talked about the OIST graduate university, stating that its goal is for at least half of its faculty and students to be non-Japanese, and to conduct education and research in English. He emphasized the geographical advantage of Okinawa’s being centrally located among the Asian countries and surrounded by the sea, and that
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Members of the Okinawa Employers’ Association |
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Dr. Akito Arima |
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