Keiji Shibai, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Kansai University Educational Corporation

Don't try to fit yourself into a small box, dream big

Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Kansai University　Keiji Shibai(Shibai Keiji)

■ Profile
He joined Kansai University in 1984, serving as professor in the Faculty of Letters in 1994, dean of the Faculty of Letters in 2002, vice president in 2006, and president in 2016. He became chairman of the board of trustees of Kansai University Educational Corporation in October 2020. He currently holds a number of important positions outside the university, including as a special member of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's University Establishment and School Corporation Council.

Kansai University will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its elevation to a university in June 2022. It has a long history as the 14th private university to open. In recent years, the university has been managing itself with carbon neutrality and dynamic internationalization in mind. We spoke with Chairman Shibai, who has served at Kansai University for nearly 40 years, about the future of universities.

■What kind of student life did you have?

I entered the Faculty of Letters at Kyoto University to study history, philosophy, and thought, which had interested me since high school. I studied liberal arts subjects in my first and second years, and from my third year I joined Professor Ochi's seminar, where I could study early modern and modern Western history, and discussed the subject with my classmates and graduate students. At the time, there was still student unrest, and sometimes classes couldn't be held, so four of my classmates and I would get together to hold reading groups, and I spent my university life deepening my academic studies with friends.
After graduating from university, I went straight to the Graduate School of Letters at Kyoto University. A doctorate normally takes three years, but after the first year, Professor Ochi, who was the head professor at the time, asked me to become his assistant from the next year, and I accepted the position. After that, I was invited by a professor at Kansai University to move there as a lecturer in the field of modern Western history, and I have been at Kansai University for the past 38 years.

■Please tell us about your role and initiatives as the chairman.

The role of the president of a private university involves signing contracts as the representative of the corporation and taking responsibility for management and finances. Because of the heavy responsibility, I feel that the work is more difficult than rewarding. Making decisions amid the COVID-19 pandemic has been particularly challenging. Last year, as president, I had to persuade students who demanded a refund for their utility bills because they hadn't used them during remote classes. Kansai University does not have a medical or nursing school, so we are unable to provide university-based vaccinations as we would like. We therefore asked the president of Osaka Medical and Pharmaceutical University, with whom we have had a collaborative agreement for about 20 years, for help. They responded, "We knew you would ask. We'll accept." We were able to vaccinate 30,593 people. Since becoming president, I have urged my staff to follow the work motto of "concise, clear, and refreshing," which was valued by the Meiji-era journalist and translator Kuroiwa Iwaru Iko. I would like to continue doing work like that.

■Please tell us about the type of university you are aiming for.

First, carbon neutrality. Naturally, we take on this as an organization, but as a university, it is important that we take on this in the areas of education and research. I think the challenge is to understand and discuss carbon neutrality and see how far we can go in creating something from it. And then dynamic internationalization. This is actually something I've always wanted to do. For example, connecting campuses with overseas campuses and allowing overseas schools to come as designated students. There is a gap between the image of research institutions at Japanese universities and the image of universities around the world, so I would like to bridge that gap.
We will also do our best to support startup companies. Currently, we provide support of 300,000 yen, 1 million yen, and 10 million yen per startup. A major role of the university is to encourage students who have ideas and goals they want to achieve.
This year marks the 14th anniversary of Kansai University's promotion to university status.
It is a university with a long history, founded in 1990. It nurtures talented people based on the founding spirit of "learning in practice" (harmony between theory and practice), which was proposed 100 years ago.

■Please give us a message for university students

Students do not need to worry about what kind of student society or companies want. Instead of what society wants from me, I want to focus on what I want and what I want to do.
And have big dreams. We are entering an era where this is extremely important. I hope you will be a little more open-minded in your life plans. We are living in an era where people can live to be 100 years old, so don't try to confine yourself to a certain box, but spend your time as a student talking about your dreams and expanding them.

Student Newspaper April 1, 2021 Issue Soka University 4th Year Student Midori Yamauchi