Japanese industry experienced a significant transition from catch-up oriented development by learning from Western countries to the pursuit of innovative changes as a frontrunner. In reality, however, individual research achievements have not necessarily led to the fulfillment of social issues so far; we are now urged to put our efforts in KOSEN education to equip future engineers with excellent skills, in order to create new basic industries in Japan.
Leveraging the unique characteristics of KOSEN colleges, we are working to formulate and share the program of social implementation education to produce engineers demanded by society.

We have suggested "social implementation education" to provide students with opportunities of facing up to real social issues and creating value in cooperation with people in society through dialogue and engineering solutions, which we think are necessary experiences for future engineers. On the basis of specialized skills in the fields of engineering, social implementation education focuses on the strengthening of communicative competence as engineering literacy, independence in facing real social problems, and creativity that connects science technology with new values.

The KOSEN school system was established more than 50 years ago, since when KOSEN graduates have been highly valued. However, the advantages and issues of KOSEN education have not been elucidated in an objective manner. Moreover, scientific evidence must be developed in regard to KOSEN's educational effects, with a view to educational reform in the future. Against this backdrop, our Project, joined by researchers from the fields of pedagogy and the like, promotes "KOSEN research" activities including (i) a survey on graduates' career paths and (ii) interviews with teachers, graduates and students.

Ichinoseki Kosen, Oyama Kosen, Tokyo Kosen (representative), Nagano Kosen, Numazu Kosen, Wakayama Kosen, and Okinawa Kosen

From FY2012 to FY2016 (five years)

While addressing the needs of society, students set their own themes and work on the social implementation of technology, taking advantage of the features of their colleges, as well as regional characteristics. In parallel, teachers are striving to develop learning communities by making effective use of local resources, with the intention of encouraging students' active.

The seven collaborating KOSEN colleges have started to incorporate social implementation education into their curricula.

We are working to develop instruction materials to allow engineering students to deepen their understanding of the innovation process, in order to realize effective social implementation education.