Kikuo Hayakawa, NOST Tokyo
Originally published on the site of NL Agency.
The Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA) and Kyushu University (KU) signed a Memorandum of Understanding for academic cooperation, during the visit of a HvA delegation to KU on April 23, 2012. The signing ceremony celebrated the agreement on scientific and educational cooperation between HvA’s School of Design and Communications and KU’s Faculty of Design, Graduate School of Design, and School of Design. Both schools will start collaborating in the field of interactive media and serious game development. At the same time, they signed an agreement on student exchange. HvA and KU hope to explore further relations based on the agreement.
In March 2008 Kyushu University visited HvA. Since then, HvA has maintained good contacts with KU and both schools prepared for the possibility of academic cooperation in several research fields including interactive media and serious games. In March 2011, HvA had scheduled to visit KU and they were almost ready to sign the agreement. However, HvA’s Japan visit had to be cancelled due to the disaster on March 11, 2011 in Japan, and the agreement was not signed and kept pending in 2011. At the signing ceremony at KU on April 23, Prof. Shinnichi Ishimura, dean of the Faculty of Design, Graduate School of Design, and School of Design signed on behalf of university, in the presence of the delegation of HvA, led by Mr. Cees Rijsenbrij, head of the department of Information Technology and Communication Multimedia Design of the School of Design and Communications (picture 1). Based on the agreement, both schools will undertake to promote and develop academic cooperation through: 1) Exchange of academic and administrative staff and students, 2) Plans for joint research, and 3) Exchange of academic materials and publications, etc. Prof. Kiyoshi Tomimatsu of the Faculty of Design of KU has been involved in the agreement, together with his counterpart, Mr Robert Crain, lecturer Visual Design and Concept Development of HvA. At the same time they signed an agreement on student exchange. In the design field KU has signed an academic agreement with Utrecht School of the Art (2008) and NHL University of Applied Sciences in Leeuwarden (February 2012) (1). Both of the agreements started with the field of serious game design. For this time, KU and HvA will start with the field of interactive media and serious game development, and hope to explore further relations based on the agreement.
Picture 1: The signing ceremony at Kyushu University on April 23, 2012
Source:
1) Kyushu University – Partner institutions in the Netherlands
