Last Sunday, I participated in a “retreat” hosted by the School of Management (SoM) at APU (Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University), where I am affiliated, held in the conference room and banquet hall of a historic hot spring inn. From 2:00 PM until well past 8:00 PM, we engaged in intensive discussions, resulting in a highly meaningful sessions where many bright prospects for the future of SoM were presented. Approximately 15 faculty members participated. As usual, it was conducted in the de-facto “multinational, multicultural, multilingual” mode.

Part 1 featured presentations and discussions from two working groups: Research and VR. For the Research WG, I gave a 40-minute mini-lecture titled “Steps for Research Collaboration.” I believe that for APU faculty, who face heavy teaching loads due to the large number of undergraduate class slots, the key to conducting cost-effective research activity and consistently producing high-quality papers lies in “how to devise effective research collaborations.” I shared my thoughts on this, including my own experiences in international and interdisciplinary projects. I was delighted to hear it was well-received and was easy to understand. The subsequent discussion involved each faculty member sharing their research themes and current projects. For one, a collaborative research project had already started immediately.

After the two working groups concluded, the second part was a networking reception in the adjacent banquet hall. Here too, we had a very interesting and lively discussion about the administrative challenges facing the School of Management and how to drive its enormous “untapped potential.” Perhaps because it’s still a young university celebrating only its 25th anniversary, there are many faculty members with a very “venture spirit,” which suits me perfectly. Let’s all keep building momentum!

先日の日曜日に、歴史ある温泉旅館の会議室と宴会場にて、私が所属するAPU（立命館アジア太平洋大学）のSoM（School of Management/経営学部/大学院）が主催する「リトリート」に参加してきました。14時から20時過ぎまでみっちりと皆で議論を行い、SoMの将来について明るい見通しが多く示せた、とても意義のある時間でした。参加者は教員15名程度。もちろん通常運営の「多国籍・多文化・多言語」モードでした。

第1部は、リサーチとVRという2種類のワーキンググループの発表とディスカッション。リサーチWGからは、私が「Steps for Research Collaboration」と称して40分ほどミニ講義を行いました。学部授業のコマ数が巨大という授業負担の多いAPUの教員が、コスパよく研究を行い高品質の論文を書き続けるには「いかに研究コラボを工夫するか」にかかっていると考えていますが、その辺りを自分の体験も含めてお話させて頂きました。分かりやすかったと好評で嬉しいかぎり。続くディスカッションでは各教員の研究テーマと目下進行中のプロジェクトに関するシェア。個人的に早速1つコラボ研究が始まりました。

2つのWGが終了して第2部は、隣の宴会場にて懇親会です。こちらも、SoMの抱える管理的課題や、活かし切れていない「巨大ポテンシャル」をどう駆動させていくかで熱い議論が交わされて大変面白かったです。まだ25周年という若い大学だからということもあるのでしょうが、非常に「ベンチャー気質」な教員が多くて私には大いにフィットしますね。みなさん、どんどん盛り上げて行きましょう！