When I am asked, "What are the characteristics of Aoyama Gakuin University?", I first tell you about the history of our university. This is because I believe that the history that we have continued to walk for about 150 years from our founding to the present day embodies the uniqueness of our university. Furthermore, valuing our history means that even in times of change, we can always return to the spirit of our founding and reexamine our axis.

The origins of our university lie in three schools founded by three missionaries sent by the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States in the early Meiji period. Students with an aspiration to study English and Western learning gathered at these schools, giving rise to an international school atmosphere. Aoyama Gakuin University was then born on the foundations of these places of learning based on Christian teachings. In this way, our university was not established from the beginning as an advanced specialized educational institution, but rather began as a place of holistic education based on Christian teachings, which I believe is a major feature of our university.

Based on this tradition, our university's main educational goal is to cultivate "people who can contribute to society," as indicated in our school motto, "Salt of the Earth, Light of the World." Liberal arts education plays a major role in cultivating such rich humanity. Liberal arts education is a great source of strength when you are confused about something in life or when you are forced to make important value judgments.

Of course, we are not just focusing on liberal arts education, we are also focusing on specialized education. In particular, with regard to science learning, centered on the Sagamihara campus, we have been working on various initiatives over the past four years to lead the university in improving its research capabilities. In 2018, we launched an integrated research organization headed by the president, and cutting-edge research continues to be produced today. Modern learning is expanding into interdisciplinary fields. Our university will continue to support various types of research with the themes of "integration of the humanities and sciences" and "internationality."

Aoyama Standard Subjects and each specialized education are in various fields and may seem unrelated. However, at their roots they are connected to "education based on Christian faith," which is the foundation of our university. This shows even more value in today's society, which is greatly shaken by the COVID-19 pandemic and other issues that transcend borders. Throughout its long history, Christianity has been the basis for certain value judgments. Christianity is also called the "religion of the book," and has the cultural characteristic of being able to coexist without contradiction with "faith" and "calm scholarship." Therefore, when people are lost in turbulent times, education based on Christian faith can serve as a "reference point" to which they can return based on reason.

The once-in-a-century education reform has taken place, and Japan's education environment has changed dramatically in the past few years. In the new curriculum guidelines set out by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, "thinking ability, judgment ability, and expression ability" are being highlighted more than ever before. In a changing society, our university has also reformed its admissions selection process to place the highest priority on "the ability to think for oneself, discover problems, solve them, and express them appropriately." Our education, as represented by the Aoyama Standard, is the foundation of these "life skills." We strongly hope that during the four years of studying at our university, Aoyama Gakuin students will develop not only their own fields of expertise, but also "the liberal arts and specialized skills that can only be learned at Aoyama Gakuin."

As a new development for our university, we will establish Japan's first Department of Human Rights in the Faculty of Law in April 2022. In addition, we will establish a new Civic Engagement Center and a Life Science Research Center in the Faculty of Science and Technology, and continue to evolve to meet the needs of the times.

Next, I would like to introduce the support our university provides regarding student life.

The Student Life Department/Sagamihara Office Student Life Section has a counter at the Student Center to provide support for all aspects of student life. The Student Life Department/Sagamihara Office Student Life Section also handles matters related to scholarships and welfare, and provides support for extracurricular activities.

The Career and Employment Center/Career and Employment Section of the Sagamihara Administrative Office is the center of support for career selection and job hunting. Our university offers career courses from the first year, and supports career design from an early stage. The Career and Employment Center/Career and Employment Section of the Sagamihara Administrative Office actively holds various seminars and individual support throughout the four years of enrollment, and approximately 370,000 alumni support us through industry research and social cafes. Our university has achieved high results, with 89.5% of 2021 graduates deciding on their career path and 92.9% finding employment (as of March 31, 2022).

We are proactively working on COVID-19 countermeasures to provide a safe learning environment. In addition to basic measures such as disinfection and avoiding crowded places, we are also working to improve the convenience of shared facilities such as vacant classrooms and lounges on campus and to improve the environment for using information devices.

We are also conducting repeated testing of online classes, which were introduced as a measure against COVID-19, and traditional face-to-face classes, to maximize the advantages of each. Online/on-demand classes, which can be viewed repeatedly, are advantageous for large classroom-type lectures with many students. On the other hand, face-to-face classes seem to be more suitable for exercises and experiments. However, since face-to-face classes are still considered the core of learning at our university, we will continue to devise ways to increase the proportion of face-to-face classes as much as possible in the future (last year, 70% of all classes were face-to-face). We are also providing detailed support to students who require special consideration due to the impact of COVID-19, such as students who have difficulty attending face-to-face classes due to disabilities, and international students who are unable to enter Japan due to travel restrictions, etc.

*For details on support for student life, please see the following special feature.

The Aoyama Gakuin University Supporters Association is an organization that connects the university with parents and guardians. It is made up of parents and other volunteers of current students, and its purpose is to promote close contact between the university and the students and to carry out projects necessary for the university's education and research. It has a history of over 50 years, and currently has about 20,000 members. Its main activities include assistance with students' extracurricular activities, accident insurance for all students, assistance with scholarship programs, assistance for seminar activities, assistance with improving the educational environment, and in recent years, assistance with COVID-19 countermeasures, as well as holding events such as "Parents' Weekend."