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Gakushuin University (Toshima-ku, Tokyo. President: Ichiro Arakawa) and Space BD (Chuo-ku, Tokyo. CEO: Masatoshi Nagasaki), a leading Japanese startup that provides a gateway to space, signed an agreement to collaborate on the joint development of a curriculum themed on “space utilization” to provide students a program integrating arts and sciences and an opportunity for practical learning, with the objective of educating students who will lead society in the future.

As an educational and research program combining knowledge gained through the collaboration and integration of basic and applied studies in humanities, sociology, and natural science, Gakushuin University will start offering a course on “Space Utilization Theory” in 2023 which will be open to all students throughout all departments. Space utilization theory is a new academic study advocated by the university that focuses on the development and utilization of space and all planets, including the Earth.

In preparation for the “Space Utilization Theory” course, the university and Space BD are developing a curriculum under a university-industrial collaboration effort aimed at educating students who will contribute to society. There will be a pragmatic learning opportunity to deepen knowledge through the arts-and-science integrated education and research the university provides, which is complemented by the business aspects that Space BD carries out.

This is the first time a Japanese university entered into a university-industrial collaboration agreement with a venture firm to jointly develop a course about space utilization that will be offered across all departments.

 

 

[Project Details]

<2022>
As part of the curriculum development, the three-day special extracurricular class “Space Venture Overview”, which was carried out in 2021, will be given again and a domestic internship program will be offered by a space venture firm. The experience at an actual space business will serve as an opportunity for the interns to develop non-cognitive skills (communication, leadership, decision-making, problem-solving, etc.) that are required in the real world but are difficult to acquire in an academic environment.

<2023>
Gakushuin University will begin offering a “Space Utlization Theory” course for all students across all departments. The curriculum will be themed on “an educational program integrating arts and sciences” and “an opportunity for practical learning”. In addition to the domestic internship program offered in the previous year, the development of an international internship program will start to nurture students who will be able to lead and expand the space business on a worldwide basis.

 

 

In recent years, universities are required to offer a more comprehensive educational program crossing the disciplinary boundaries of arts or sciences and an opportunity for practical learning in order to educate future leaders of society.

Gakushuin University has been focused on offering education that organically links basic education in a broad sense that covers both arts and sciences with diversified, specialized education. Since its inauguration, the university has adopted a ‘one campus’ system and paved the way for an education and research environment where the five faculties (law, economics, letters, science, and international social sciences) as well as the graduate schools come together at one campus, and students pursuing different areas of studies and faculty members devoted to different fields of research can learn together.

In 2018 Space BD was selected as the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) commercial service provider for their first open project, the Minisatellite Launch from International Space Station (ISS) Japanese Experiment Module KIBO. Since then Space BD has been serving one-stop services for prospective project participants, providing total support from formulating a business plan to technical implementation. The company has developed and implemented space-oriented educational programs, including the “AOKI Global Entrepreneurship Program”, jointly carried out by men’s wear retailer AOKI targeting junior high school students, and the “Space Education Program”, developed for senior high school students in cooperation with the Clark Memorial International High School and the University of Tokyo.

Gakushuin University and Space BD collaboration on the development of the space utilization theory course began in 2021. In December 2021, a three-day special class, “Space Venture Overview”, was offered to students, where Space BD CEO Masatoshi Nagasaki lectured on the current situation of the space business as well as the journey leading up to the founding of the company. The class also included lectures given by engineers on space technology and business, and a workshop with presentations on space business.

 

 

 

 

 

■For further information about this program, please contact: