Happy New Year!

I would like to give my respectful greetings to begin the year of 2019.

This year marks the celebration of our third year since the April 2016 merger and inauguration of NIAD-QE. We will be ending the third term of the medium-term goal period this fiscal year and carry out our operation under a new medium-term goal come this April.

“Reassessment of NIAD-QE” for the next medium-term goal period was provided last summer by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology. These include the expansion and prioritization of: continuation of the administrative and operational efforts of the current medium-term goal period; further improvement in the quality of university evaluation in Japan; promotion of recognition of qualification in higher education; dissemination of awareness in awarding of academic degrees by NIAD-QE; and the promotion of university strategic management decisions.

As stated in “Grand Design for Higher Education Toward 2040”, a November 2018 report released by the Central Council for Education, amid intense social changes on a global scale, universities provide a foundation on which to support and promote the future development of society through the inherent functions of education and research, and policy efforts to introduce measures based on such are underway in Japan and many other countries around the world.

We have worked on various aspects to support the improvement of the quality of higher education in Japan, but we also recognize that, amid changes in society and the accompanying changes in higher education, new efforts are needed to further strengthen our support functions for universities.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to everyone involved, including national, municipal/prefectural, and private higher education institutions, for their continued support and cooperation in the operation of our organization.

This year, we at NIAD-QE will continue to work together in order to contribute to the further development of higher education in Japan. We thank you for your continued support and encouragement of our organization.

FUKUDA Hideki, Ph.D., President
National Institution for Academic Degrees and
Quality Enhancement of Higher Education (NIAD-QE), Japan

Season’s Greetings from NIAD-QE

---