"Higher Education in the Age of Globalization"

Profile:

Mr. Shigeharu Kato was born in Tokyo on June 19th, 1957.

Before joining Science and Technology Agency in 1980, Mr. Kato earned his Bachelor of Engineering at the University of Tokyo. With government scholarship, he earned his Master of Public Policy at J. F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University in 1986. He was stationed in the Permanent Delegation of Japan to the OECD in early 90's as a science counselor.

After working mainly in the field of science and technology policy, nuclear energy development and nuclear safety regulation, Mr. Kato is recently assigned to important work in international education.

In 2009-11, he fully engaged himself in internationalizing Japanese universities and promoting exchange and cooperation among universities in East Asian countries with quality assurance. At the time, he worked on the launch of the CAMPUS Asia program, joint university educational effort by Japan China, and Korea. He also organized an International Symposium on exchange among universities in East Asia with quality assurance held in Tokyo in September 2011. In addition, he developed various programs to facilitate two-way students exchange and internationalization of Japanese universities, including "Global 30".

After a temporal assignment to nuclear safety job responding to the Fukushima nuclear accident, he was appointed to Director-General for International Affairs at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in May 2012. His present prioritized responsibilities include; educational cooperation in East Asian region, APEC and OECD; the secretary-general of Japanese National Commission for UNESCO; delegate to the Executive Board of UNESCO; promotion of Education for Sustainable Development; promotion of Japan - US educational exchange, including alternate chair of US-Japan Fulbright bilateral commission and member of US Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange; member of Board of Trustees, Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology; member of Advisory Panel for Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology.

His present interest is how best we can equip our children and youth with abilities, attitudes and aspiration for the coming globalized, knowledge-based economy and society.

International conferences and government meetings Mr. Kato has attended include:

• East Asian Summit Higher Education Cooperation Forum (October 2010 in Kunming, China);
• The 11th China International Forum on Education (October 2010 in Beijing, China):
• Going Global 2011 - 'Japan's approaches to the internationalization of higher education' (March 2011 in Hong Kong)
• Educating for a sustainable future: UNESCO side-event at Rio+20 on Education for Sustainable Development (June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro)
• Meeting of UNESCO National Commission Secretary-Generals of East Asia (August 2012 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia)
• 190th session of UNESCO Executive Board (October 2012 in Paris)
• High Official Meeting of South East Asia Education Ministers Organization (November 2012 in Bangkok)
• ASEAN+3 Senior Official Meeting on Education (November 2012 in Bangkok)
• Higher Education Task Force, US-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange (January 2013 in Honolulu)
• Advisory Panel of Malaysia Japan International Institute of Technology (January 2013 in Kuala Lumpur)
• OECD Japan Seminar on International Education (February 2013 in Tokyo)
• Meeting of Board of Trustees, Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology (March 2013 in Aswan, Egypt)
• Going Global 2013 - "Japanese engineering Education Transplanted in Muslim World" (March 2013 in Dubai)
• Council Meeting of South East Asia Education Ministers Organization (March 2013 in Hanoi)
• UNESCO International Workshop on Sustainability Science (April 2013 in Kuala Lumpur)
• 191th session of UNESCO Executive Board (April 2013 in Paris)
• Roundtable Meeting and Symposium of US-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange (May 2013 in Tokyo)