ページの目次
Start of the joint education project through the collaboration of the four universities in Saitama Prefecture
In order to meet the increasingly complex and diverse needs of the residents, such as expanding demand for home medicine and long-term care arising from the declining birthrate and aging population, it is essential to develop human resources capable of collaborating with people from many occupations to discover and solve the issues in the lifestyles of the local residents.
Therefore, four universities, Saitama Prefectural University, Saitama Medical University, Josai University, and the Nippon Institute of Technology, decided to implement a collaborative project with the philosophy of “realizing high-quality lifestyles for the local residents” and this project was adopted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology as a Program for Promoting Inter-University Collaborative Education.
Collaborating undergraduate departments (faculties) in the four universities
1. Saitama Prefectural University
School of Health and Social Services (Department of Nursing, Department of Physical Therapy, Department of Occupational Therapy, Department of Social Work, Department of Health Sciences)
2. Saitama Medical University
Faculty of Medicine (Department of Medicine)
3. Josai University
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences (School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Department of Clinical Dietetics and Human Nutrition, Department of Pharmaceutical and Health Sciences)
4. Nippon Institute of Technology
Faculty of Engineering (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Products Engineering and Environmental Management, Department of Innovative Systems Engineering, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Department of Computer & Information Engineering, Department of Architecture, Department of Living Environment Design)
Overview of the collaborative project
1. Joint development and joint teaching of the collaboration subjects studied by the students at the four universities together
The joint development and joint teaching of collaboration subjects will be implemented. For example students at Saitama Medical University, Josai University and the Nippon Institute of Technology will participate in the IP exercises being implemented by Saitama Prefectural University (interprofessional exercises; professional collaboration exercises).
The IP exercises are a compulsory subject for all of the students at Saitama Prefectural University in which students from across different faculties form teams, and the students think about the optimal care through practices based on cooperation with the staff and patients, etc. on the frontline in hospitals, etc. The students at the Faculty of Medicine in Saitama Medical University are also participating in this subject.
2. Support for student joint learning programs, etc.
The four universities support the student joint learning programs, etc. at each university who are independently discovering the issues in the region and working together to solve them.
3. Implementation of interdisciplinary joint research that is returned to education and the region
The four universities will develop structures for selecting and implementing education that cannot be achieved by one university alone and research which can be returned to the region.
4. Returning the outcomes to the professionals in the region
The outcomes of the education and research will be returned to the region, for example by utilizing them to hold training sessions for improving the ability to collaborate of the professionals in the region, etc.
Involvement with Saitama Prefecture
Going forward it will be important for Saitama Prefecture to “realize high-quality lifestyles for the local residents” because the prefecture is expected to have the fastest-aging population in Japan, so Saitama Prefecture itself is promoting the Saitama Project for Healthy Longevity in order to realize a society in which everyone can live healthy and long lives.
Therefore, Saitama Prefecture will dispatch prefectural staff to the joint teaching classes, recruit practice areas, participate in the evaluation of the collaborative project, etc. to ensure that the collaborative project proceeds smoothly and steadily.
Reference information
1. Distinctive features of the collaborative project
Saitama Prefectural University, the leading university in the collaborative project, was chosen for the Support Program for Distinctive University Education (Distinctive GP) and the Support Program for Contemporary Educational Needs (Contemporary GP) and has been promoting education related to IP (professional collaboration). Furthermore, in fiscal year 2008 the Japan Association for Interprofessional Education was established, and its first annual meeting was held at Saitama Prefectural University. (The chair of the first annual meeting was Susumu Sato, former president of Saitama Prefectural University.) The current collaborative project builds on these results to expand collaborative education involving people from even more occupations.
Education based on the idea of “team medicine” is being implemented at a number of healthcare and welfare universities nationwide but there are no examples of education implemented in collaboration with industrial universities like the Nippon Institute of Technology. It was decided that the four universities would jointly implement the project because focusing on the health and lifestyles of the residents and comfortable living environments will be extremely important going forward.
2. Conclusion of agreement
The four universities and Saitama Prefecture concluded the attached agreement on joint implementation of the collaborative project dated September 21, 2012.
3. Overview of the Program for Promoting Inter-University Collaborative Education
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has been implementing this new project aimed at nationwide universities, junior colleges, college of technology since fiscal year 2012 (153 applications, 49 projects accepted).
