ILAS Director Prof. Dr. NAYATANI, Shin

The Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences is an organization for planning and implementing liberal arts and sciences education at Nagoya University.

Nagoya University has the basic goal of education as “through an education that values independent thinking, shall foster individuals who possess intellectual courage, the power of rational thought, and imagination” As an intellectual, it is assumed to have rich knowledge, but the above goal describes its quality. In other words, there are questions concerning how far back to the fundamental and understand the targeted subjects, or how to perceive the relation with the surrounding matters.

This kind of understanding will require a certain amount of logical thinking and imagination, but those of you who have studied hard for the entrance exam should already have these abilities. In the future, through liberal arts and sciences education, we hope that you will further develop these abilities and acquire high-quality knowledge. To make it possible, we believe that the mission of the Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences is to further improve the educational system and promote excellent educational activities.

Then, my specialty is mathematics, and I am in charge of the specialized mathematics courses for first and second year students every year. However, until I entered university, I have never imagined that I would be involved in education and research in mathematics in the future. The reason why I became interested in mathematics and took up the carrier is that I studied mathematics as a liberal arts and sciences education, and I can say that the liberal education is my starting point. I am very glad to be involved as a director in a highly respected liberal arts and sciences education.

I am still a novice director, and I am not good enough to speak about the essentials of liberal arts and sciences. Former director, Prof. Todayama, always said that liberal arts and sciences education does not exist as a preparation process for specialized education but has a completed goal in itself. I also strongly realize the same from my own experience. Through practicing liberal arts and sciences education together with you and faculty members, we hope to think about its meaning together and grow together.