For the Next 150 Years with The University of Tokyo
The University of Tokyo (UTokyo) will celebrate our 150th anniversary in 2027. Ever since our founding in 1877, UTokyo has been widely and deeply involved with society, and we have accumulated a wide range of academic achievements that have been passed down and developed from generation to generation.
Now, in the 2020s, we are at an important turning point as we face global issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change. As an academic institution, we must be aware of the roles that we should play, consider what we are able to accomplish, and, with a long-term perspective that reflects the past while looking to the future, take action to create a new society.
With the start of UTokyo’s 150th anniversary period, we have launched a new donation campaign, called UTokyo NEXT150, that looks ahead to the next 150 years. UTokyo will continue to produce a diverse range of world-class academic knowledge through our ongoing education and research activities. We will also continue to nurture outstanding human resources who will create a new future, as well as increase the attraction of UTokyo as a university that anyone in the world would want to join.
In order for us to accomplish this, it is essential that we secure stable and independent financial resources that are not affected by changes in the government’s policies or financial situation. Your donations to UTokyo NEXT150 will not only support us financially. They will also be a driving force to strengthen UTokyo’s management base, which is built on the expectations of society and on dialogue with all of you.
We intend to position UTokyo NEXT150 as the core and fundamental fund of UTokyo. It will enable us to make various forward-looking investments for the next 150 years, make contributions as a university that serves the global public, and take bold and flexible actions.
We would very much appreciate your continued support so that we can share our vision for the future of UTokyo through dialogue and continue our autonomous and creative activities for the next 150 years.
Teruo Fujii
President, The University of Tokyo
Creating a campus that everyone will want to join
The guiding principles of the University of Tokyo, UTokyo COMPASS statement was announced on September 30, 2021.
UTokyo Compass | The University of Tokyo (u-tokyo.ac.jp)
UTokyo NEXT150 is....
As a university that serves the public good of the world, the University of Tokyo seeks autonomy and self-governance, while at the same time declaring in its Charter that it will create research activities which respond to the demands of society. In order to continue such autonomous and creative educational, research activities, and also to return the results of such activities to society's ever-changing needs in a timely and appropriate manner, it is extremely important to establish a unique financial foundation. To give an example, in recent years the University of Oxford was able to immediately implement the results of the "knowledge" cultivated at the university into society as a solution to the unforeseen situation of the coronavirus pandemic because of its own unique endowments.
As the university with the longest history in Japan, the University of Tokyo is determined to establish a system that can always return the extensive and diverse knowledge accumulated over the past 150 years to society. We would like to link the 150 years of accumulated knowledge to the next 150 years and would like to establish a fund to make this a reality. With these goals, we are naming this discretionary fund as “UTokyo NEXT 150”. It will be used to support the University's autonomous and creative educational and research activities, including basic research, and will be accumulated as a financial base for the University of Tokyo in times of need. Furthermore, it will function as an immediately available financial resource whenever society has a need. Through UTokyo NEXT150, we hope to use your support to create a university that contributes to the betterment of society.
Contributing to society by creating "spaces" of free will
(From President Fujii’s speech at the special event of the 2022 University of Tokyo Fund Activity Report Meeting)
In the situation brought on by the novel coronavirus that we are facing, Oxford University and a company called AstraZeneca teamed up together to develop a vaccine. I think this is a very significant contribution to the world by Oxford University. I heard this story from Dr. Louise Richardson, President of Oxford University, whom I had the opportunity to meet twice during my overseas business trips this year (2022).
The novel coronavirus emerged at the beginning of 2020, and the genetic information about the virus was released in Wuhan on January 10. Oxford University had the Genome Institute and an excellent team for vaccine development research. The member of that team came to the university president and said, “We want to develop a vaccine for the new coronavirus!” to which the university president said “Yes”.
President Richardson stated, ‘The reason I was able to say yes was very much that Oxford University had been actively fundraising for several years prior and had a strong endowment, a so-called endowment fund, that the university had at its disposal.’
‘I have been actively collecting donations for the past decade or so, and the reason I have been doing it to "create space" for university researchers to be able to do what they want, and to do it when they say, “I should do this”or “I want to do that”. That is why I have worked so hard to collect donations. So, when the development team said that they want to develop a vaccine, I know that they would need a lot of money for clinical trials, therefore I was able to say yes because I had that space.’
What is even more impressive is that Oxford University's contract with AstraZeneca promised “to make no profit when supplying this vaccine, i.e., only the cost of making the vaccine, with no added profit, and to be "non-profit" during the pandemic”. This was possible because the university could fund the project on its own. This also led to the provision of 3 billion doses of vaccines to developing countries.
I felt that this event at Oxford University was a very wonderful contribution to the world by universities. I felt that it is extremely important for universities to be able to do something like this as soon as they think it should be done.
(From the July 25, 2022 University of Tokyo Fund Activity Report Meeting Special Event)
UTokyo Communities Connected by Dialogue and Empathy
On the occasion of the 150th anniversary, we will create a place, community, and network where the University of Tokyo and its supporters, donors, and sponsors can connect and engage in dialogue.
(Details will be announced as soon as prepared.)
Ways to Give:
・Make a one-time donation,
OR
・Make a monthly, semi-annual, or annual recurring gift of a set amount.
Donations to the UTokyo Foundation (Discretionary Fund) can also be given using Amazon Pay.
Project Leader
Teruo Fujii
President, The University of Tokyo
