The MSU-IIT through Chancellor Sukarno D. Tanggol signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for Academic Exchange and Cooperation between the Center of Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) of Japan’s second oldest imperial institution, Kyoto University, represented by its Director Professor Hiromu Shimizu.
Established in 1897 as an imperial university, the 333-hectare Kyoto University located in Kyoto, Japan is a public or national university and is consistently recognized as the second highest-ranked research university in Asia and among the top 30 in the world. It counts among its faculty and alumni eight Nobel Prize laureates in Medicine, Chemistry and in Physics; two Fields medalists for Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics; and, one recipient of the Carl Friedrich Gauss Prize (for Mathematics).
Dr. Christine Godinez-Ortega, Acting Director of the Office of Publications & Information (OPI) and Senior Special Assistant of the Office of the Chancellor initiated the agreement during her recent visit to Kyoto University’s CSEAS in April this year. Ortega was also in Kyoto to pay homage to her favorite novelist, Lady Murasaki Shikibu, who hailed from Kyoto and who wrote The Tale of Genji (ca. 11th century), the first novel in the world.
The MOU between the two universities that is valid for five years agree to promote academic and faculty exchanges and partnership through joint or collaborative researches, conferences, publications, the sharing of library resources, and access to internet and other electronic media.
The CSEAS is one of Kyoto University’s vital centers. It seeks to be part of the growth in the Southeast Asian region considering that Southeast Asia has always been at the forefront in the global stage of development in academic, socio-political, economic and technological advances.
This MOU with Kyoto University is one more addition to the recent MOUs and MOAs between the Institute and other universities in Indonesia, Malaysia and Japan this year. The Kyoto University MOU is subject to the confirmation of the MSU Board of Regents
Ortega revealed that the tie-up with Kyoto University is the first step to establish in the Institute a similar center to Kyoto University’s CSEAS for all disciplines to celebrate and prepare for the opening of borders of ASEAN in 2015. (OC News Release)