It is an especially exciting day for Huskies! Today I signed a memorandum of agreement to formalize a brand new partnership with Waseda University, Japan’s most prestigious private institution. Together, we’ll build Waseda’s new Center for Teaching, Learning & Technology.
This is a truly international partnership. It builds upon the UW’s existing innovations in technology to transform the learning experience of students; it moves the UW from training Waseda faculty on our Seattle campus to partnering together in Tokyo; and it allows us to do collaborative and comparative research on innovative uses of technology in education in both the U.S. and Japan.
The long-term student learning outcomes from the new center will have a meaningful impact on classrooms in both of our countries. This is the type of research collaboration that will benefit the UW, Washington state and our world.
The partnership was made possible, in part, because of the UW’s long-standing history with Japan. In 1894, our first Japanese student, Jinta Yamaguchi, arrived in Seattle. Since then, hundreds of Japanese students have made the journey over the ocean and UW students have joyously made the reverse-trek. Japanese is the second-most studied language at the UW, and today the demand for the study of Japanese history, culture and language has never been stronger. This warms my heart more than ever as my affection for Japan has only deepened since I first traveled there more than four decades ago. I am delighted and eager to continue this legacy of educational exchange between the UW and our Japanese friends and partners at Waseda University.