Message from the President

However, knowledge is just a scrap of paper—be it scientific findings, a social institution, or outstanding business models—unless it is accompanied by the comprehensive ability to use and convert it into the wealth of society. Namely, knowledge can be converted into the wealth of society to bring about innovation only when combined with "people's ability" to utilize it to create and execute a project that is conducive to solving a variety of social problems. In other words, the wealth of human resources who possess highly professional knowledge and skills, as well as the high level ability to complete projects (or competency), is the most crucial factor in the wealth of society. We call these human resources advanced professionals, which we aim to develop through our master's degree programs.

At conventional higher educational institutions, the focus has been on imparting a body of knowledge to students. This is because the outcome can be measured relatively easily, and there is a higher level of objectivity when imparting a static body of knowledge. In the real business world, however, skills and competencies often play a role equal to or far greater than knowledge. In our Institute, we aim to develop high flyers who have the outstanding ability to execute a project in the real business world. To achieve this goal, one of the most essential pillars of our education is the development of skills and competencies. Namely, the pillars of education are twofold: to acquire the systematic knowledge required in the real business world and to develop the competencies required to execute a project. These are the most salient features of our educational system. We expect that students aspiring to join our educational programs will fully understand the value of practical knowledge and competencies and will make positive efforts to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills.

Unlike academic knowledge acquired through ordinary educational programs at universities, practical knowledge includes procedural knowledge, which is knowledge exercised in the execution of business tasks and which makes it all the more difficult to appreciate the true value of practical knowledge without having real world business experience. Our curriculum is developed from this perspective, targeting students who have actual realworld business experience. Based on this policy goal of the Institute, students with different backgrounds will systematically acquire the latest knowledge and skills required in each professional field in their first year. In the second year, students are expected to clarify the group of competencies that are the most important qualities of a high flyer, and they will be thoroughly trained through a team learning approach called Project Based Learning (PBL) to further reinforce competencies. Generally, business projects are carried out by a team comprising professionals from a variety of fields. Therefore, high flyers are expected to possess the ability to manage the project team so as to draw out the collective knowledge from the team members, which should be superior to individual knowledge. Arguably, the PBL may be the only learning method that enables students to learn how to elicit collective knowledge from a whole project team. Advanced professionals are expected to develop the quality of knowledge progressively from individual knowledge to the collective knowledge of team members to the socialization of knowledge. The concept of a learning community is derived as the platform for lifelong learning and which supports the development of the quality of knowledge.

We aim to develop advanced professionals who will grow continuously by upgrading the form of learning progressively from individual learning to collective team learning to community learning. The following examples are representative of the unique educational programs we have developed in an attempt to achieve such goals:

1.

Classes in the first year of study are video-recorded. Students can view the videos free of charge for ten years after graduation from the Institute.

2.

The AIIT Academic Credit Bank Program allows students to accumulate credits earned as non-degree students prior to regular enrollment in our master's degree programs.

3.

The PBL study group's activities are carried out in collaboration with the Management Advisory Council

4.

The Certified Lecturer Program provides an opportunity primarily for our graduates, if accredited by our faculty council, to give lectures at AIIT.

5.

The Monthly Forum provides an opportunity for a variety of people to interact with one another through the learning process.

6.

The Open Institute program opens up access to research and development activities to promote interactive communication with the local community.

As explained above, as the only comprehensive and professional engineering graduate school in Japan, our primary mission is to contribute to the further development of Tokyo, a mature industrial society, by providing a "mutual learning forum" of advanced knowledge as a platform for lifelong learning by advanced professionals. Therefore, we do not accept students who think and act as passive recipients of educational services like consumers of educational services. We seek students who aspire to become high flyers who can play an active role in the development of an affluent society by actively participating in the mutual learning forums that we have been striving to create and leveraging the power of highly sophisticated knowledge. We strongly believe that a learning community that brings together these high flyers will spread throughout the city of Tokyo and will lead to the creation of the nextgeneration Tokyo as an affluent and vibrant city of multitalented professionals.