Annual General Assembly 2002 - Castine

Session I - WG 1 ~ Chair: Dr. V. Forbes

A New Educational System of Maritime Science in 21^st Century proposed by Kobe University of Mercantile Marine

Toshimichi FUKUOKA

Department of Ocean Electro-Mechanical Engineering,
Kobe University of Mercantile Marine,
5-1-1, Fukaeminami, Higashinada, Kobe, JAPAN
Email : fukuoka@cc.kshosen.ac.jp

Abstract

Kobe University of Mercantile Marine (KUMM) is going to be integrated next year as one faculty of Kobe University, one of the representative large-scaled national universities in Japan. KUMM regards the integration as the most important and crucial moment to realize VISION 21 projects. The outline of VISION 21 was introduced two years ago at the Inaugural General Assembly of IAMU in Istanbul, where the emphasis was placed on the new curriculum and educational system for undergraduate students. The new curriculum has been working well since April 1, 2001, and has been given a good reputation from KUMM staffs and students. KUMM now intends to make further progress with the integration.

In this paper, the outline of KUMM' strategy concerning the integration is introduced, i.e., how the concepts of VISION 21 is to be realized. First of all, the organization of a new maritime faculty, "Faculty of Maritime Science", is briefly explained including its graduate school. When integrated with Kobe University, an epoch-making educational system is planned. That is, the students studying in Faculty of Maritime Science can attend the lectures provided by the other faculties such as Law, Economics, Business Administration, Science and Engineering, etc. It is expected that those distinctive educational systems significantly enhance the education quality of Faculty of Maritime Science. Incidentally, KUMM is also asked to provide some sea-oriented subjects for students studying in other faculties.

KUMM strongly hopes to be the center of excellence of maritime science and related areas through the integration, both domestically and internationally. This paper also aims at providing the information of a new educational trend of maritime science in Japan.

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