Tokyo-based Showa Women's University (SWU) and Temple University, Japan Campus (TUJ) have announced a unique campus-sharing agreement that could offer a model to other Japanese schools.
The universities first announced their plan to share SWU's Setagaya campus in June. According to a press release, "This agreement to share a campus is the first of its kind between Japanese and American universities and marks an unprecedented step to promote the globalization of Japanese universities."
By September 2019, TUJ will move to a new six-story building on land that SWU owns just outside its campus gates. SWU will construct and own the building, which TUJ will pay to lease. TUJ, whose current campus is located in an office building in Minato Ward, will gain shared access to SWU facilities such as sport fields, gyms, auditoriums, a pool and cafeteria.
During her opening remarks to the audience at TUJ's 35th Anniversary Symposium held at SWU last month, SWU Chancellor Mariko Bando said, "SWU, through professional education, has been making various efforts to foster global female talent who can survive in the 21st century, and this will be a huge boost."
TUJ Dean Bruce Stronach told the attendees that the partnership isn't just about gaining access to campus facilities,
"We are so happy to be on a campus finally and have our own building and all that is really, really great. But the real thing is the education, and I think that in the end this relationship is just going to be tremendously supportive of the global nature of the education of both SWU students and TUJ students."
In a phone interview, Stronach elaborated on the benefits of the tie-up. The partnership will also see stronger collaborative academic programs. SWU and TUJ students will more easily be able to take and receive credit for courses offered by the other college.
Universities allowing their students to transfer credits for courses taken at another school isn't a new idea in Japan. Since the 1990s, universities in different cities and regions have been members of credit-transfer consortiums. The consortiums became increasingly popular in the 2000s and there are now at least 15 throughout the country, including five organized by Tokyo-based universities.
