About Gunma University

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Gunma University was founded in 1949 as a member of the new system of national universities on a pristine campus located in a bright and abundant natural environment surrounded by the "Three Mountains of Jomo" (Akagi, Haruna and Myogi). Since that time, through its efforts to foster promising human resources, search for truth and peace, and investigate a wide range of profound scientific principles and their practical applications through research, the university has strived to fulfill its social mandate as a representative university of the Northern Kanto region in order to contribute to world prosperity and human welfare.

The latter half of the 20th century was an era that has come to be symbolized by the rapid progress of scientific technology and economic prosperity. At the same time, it had also become an age forced to deal with the actualization on a global scale of a number of complex issues deeply concerned with the very existence of mankind and the core elements of prosperity. Herein, the university has continued to respond sincerely to the demands of the times through educational and research activities in the individual academic disciplines of education, medicine, engineering and social information studies.

As a result, from a multifaceted and comprehensive perspective, and as a leader in the a new era of education and research in the 21st century, Gunma University hereby declares the following as the fundamental principles of its mission in order to respond to a diversified range of needs on a global scale.

1. To foster motivated, highly creative individuals capable of serving as human resources and willing to embrace new and difficult issues from a broad global perspective through the incorporation of the principles of the dignity of mankind in order to best respond to the needs of society.
2. In order to elevate the global standards with regard to educational and research activities, through the collaboration with educational and research institutions both at home and abroad, and to gather timely information from throughout the world in terms of scholarship and scientific technology, the university seeks to promote cutting-edge creative academic pursuits through on-going efforts to improve by learning with and from others.
3. In order to establish the autonomy of the university, in deference to the independence and autonomy of each constituent member of the university community, we must also strive to establish and maintain the academic freedom that serves as the institutional security of the university so that we can realize an enhanced invigoration and individualization of the education and research activities that are carried out. At the same time, we must maintain a rigorous awareness of our self-responsibility and strive for a constant elevation of our role as an open university.

Based on the Basic Philosophy outlined above, Gunma University strives to achieve the goals categorized and defined below:

1. Educational Goals
   a. To provide an appropriate academic environment conducive to self-motivation and creative academic pursuits and, at the same time, to provide maximum support in order to stimulate the fundamental potential and harness the energy of all of our students.
   b. To recognize the importance of a liberal arts education within a framework of cooperation as we strive to offer programs in specialized fields based upon collaboration among the various academic disciplines in order to cultivate an abundance of human compassion symbiotic with nature through an extensively deep liberal arts education and comprehensive faculties of reason.
   c. To establish a fusion among the liberal arts disciplines in undergraduate programs by fostering a fundamental competence in each of the academic disciplines and cultivating human resources by encouraging the acquisition of state-of-the-art knowledge and technical training that can enable students to deal continuously with a broad range of pertinent issues.
   d. To create graduate school programs as a continuation of undergraduate fields of study, to foster professionals possessing high ethical standards along with a high level of expertise and technical skills in their areas of specialization that allow them to take full advantage of their creative abilities as researchers.
2. Research Goals
   a. To strive to make discoveries while engaged in independent research within individual fields of study which evolve along global standards; to conduct research in highly specialized fields which, when viewed from a synthesized perspective, may create new paradigms.
   b. To continue to plan programs which, in the tradition of Gunma University, allow for both practical and realistic experience in various academic fields; to provide an appropriately competitive academic environment; to strive to establish a highly advanced educational institution which, through the creation of new forms of wisdom, can respond to the needs of society and the age.
   c. To actively engage in cooperative research with local municipalities and other off-campus institutions, in order to address the issues and problems of the regional community.
3. Social Contribution Goals
   a. To protect the natural environment; to nurture regional culture and traditions; and to help create an abundant regional society by actively engaging in programs with on- and off-campus institutions; and, as the results of these efforts, to contribute to the realization of a healthy and cultural lifestyle.
   b. To promote local government programs, industries and residents; to propose programs to support regional vitality as a first step in community enhancement; and to serve to strengthen the ties between the university and the local community through various lifelong learning programs that respond to the needs the local community.
4. International Contribution Goals
   a. To enrich the international student program; to encourage Gunma University students to study at universities and research facilities overseas and create relevant systems of support; to expand the university's circle of international exchange and deepen cross-cultural understanding thereby contributing to international peace in the process.
   b. To promote an academic exchange of faculty between Gunma University and universities and research facilities overseas; to encourage participation in international academic conferences; to make international contributions of an academic nature, and to promote international social cooperation.
5. University Management Goals
   a. To respect the consensus and independence of the university's constituent members, while employing the university's philosophy as a foundation; to promote an independent and autonomous university management; and, as an open university, to seek the participation of learned and knowledgeable persons who have extensive experience in education and/or research in university management planning.
   b. With regard to today's rapidly expanding information network society, to further expand the university's comprehensive information system; to fully utilize the capabilities of this system; to enable increasingly efficient university management, and, to pursue transparency within the system by striving to actively provide access to university information while earnestly assuming full responsibility for information provided both within and without the university.
   c. To conduct exacting self-evaluations, as well as regular evaluations executed by outside authorities; to carry out responsible the utilization of third-party evaluations and proactively incorporate their recommendations in future planning activities; to seek ways in which to improve the quality of the university's diverse activities.