Prof. Akira Ando

Tohoku University Center for Graduate School Innovation Director

Led by the Tohoku University Advanced Graduate School, we are implementing leading graduate programs and a common course of graduate studies to transcend specific academic research fields, and supporting frontier interdisciplinary and international research. Furthermore, we are assisting graduate students with career-planning by providing a dedicated environment for their studies and research.

The Center for Graduate School Innovation actively supports the Advanced Graduate School degree programs nurturing young globally-active leaders, improvements in graduate school education, and human resources development in the Division for Interdisciplinary Advanced Research and Education. Further it conducts specific activities including planning, preparation, and coordination of higher education, career support, and improvement of the study/research environment for graduate school students.

In particular, Tohoku University was selected for JST’s “Support for Pioneering Research Initiated by the Next Generation," and also we have started the new “Research Initiative for International Scholarly Excellence Program,” which aims to enlarge scholarship support for doctoral students and ensure promising careers for them. Our center strongly assists doctoral students.

In addition, we have an organization to provide career support programs for doctoral and post-doc students called the PhD Career Development Unit(PhDC). It offers the Basic Ph.D.Literacy,aimed at giving students transferable skills in conjunction with research capability. It also provides several support activities such as conducting job fairs, providing individual career assistance, matching support between companies and doctoral students for internships, and offering alumni exchange/internship-related support.