2023 Volume 3 Issue 1 Pages 26-30
with seven municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture. This education is a curriculum that extracts problems in agriculture, forestry, food industry, etc. in the seven municipalities and searches for their solutions. The faculty has four principles as its diploma policy. The four pillars are practicality, interdisciplinarity, internationality, and contribution. The philosophy of human resource development, which emphasizes practicality and interdisciplinarity, is also reflected in the unique educational curriculums. Emphasizing practicality means returning to the original starting point of agricultural sciences by facing problems in the field of agriculture and forestry. Regarding contribution, I believe that "Students should acquire calm analytical skills based on scientific evidence and logic and be able to understand the significance of contributing to the community from a long-term perspective". The practicality, interdisciplinarity, and contribution of diploma policy have two meanings. The first point is that it exists as a policy of educations, and the second point is that it is a basic principle that guides research. As for the second point, the attitudes of the faculty and the Society for Reconstruction Agriculture have much in common, in that they approach the field and engage in agricultural research. I don't think any further explanation is necessary on this point. This time, I would like to introduce the four-year history of the faculty, focusing on the philosophy of its activities and keeping in mind the connection with the Society for Reconstruction Agriculture. As of the end of March 2023, I will be retiring from my position as Dean of the Faculty of Food and Agricultural Sciences at Fukushima University. I will be graduating from Fukushima University together with the inaugural students of the faculty, which opened in April 2019. This time, I will mainly introduce the characteristics of the faculty. I would also like to point out that the basic philosophy of the faculty overlaps with the basic philosophy of the Society of Reconstruction Agriculture. Firstly, as a characteristic of the faculty composition, the universities from which the newly appointed faculty members graduated ranged from Hokkaido to Kagoshima Prefecture. The second feature is that the faculty is organized into four specialized majores and 10 are faculty members in the food science major, more than a quarter of all faculty members. From the preparatory stage of the faculty, I have repeatedly emphasized to faculty and staff that we should aim for unique educations. Among them, the farm basic training throughout the first and second semesters provides highly motivated freshmen with opportunities to come into direct contact with animals, plants and food. In addition, materials for forestry, food industry, and agricultural management are also included as practical training materials. Secondly, agricultural practical education is offered from the second to third year
