President Message

To first-year students and prospective students

On behalf of Ritsumeikan University, it is my pleasure to greet you, first-year students, parents and prospective students. In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic drastically changed the way we live. I feel especially sorry for the first-year students who did not even have an entrance ceremony and have been deprived of most of the opportunities to make new friends and build new relationships on campus. You must be greatly disappointed by the current situation.
We strongly hope that all of you will fully enjoy campus life and gain useful experience at our university. Today, I would like to explain the determination of Ritsumeikan University concerning campus life starting from April 2021. The keyword is “human connection.” We will take various measures to ensure that all of you, new second-year and first-year students, can socialize with new friends and expand your network of friendships on campus in a real-life setting.

Tutoring and campus life in AY2021 – Building face-to-face “human connection”

Ritsumeikan University aims to create a new type of campus life. While our priority is in-person interactions on campus, we will also introduce the advantages of cyberspace to enhance your experience at the university. We will develop an environment that provides all of our students with greater access to opportunities to study and learn from each other at any time and anywhere, to meet the different needs and circumstances of students.
Basic workshops, seminars, foreign language classes, laboratory works, and practical training sessions, which offer valuable opportunities for students to interact with each other and deepen friendships, will be held in person. The learning commons in our libraries and academic buildings will be open to all students. Furthermore, more than 200 student clubs and circles will resume their activities in a physical setting. We will also help students with international exchange and job-seeking activities through both the university’s institutional support and peer support.
Needless to say, to allow human connections in person, it is crucial to have strong and effective Covid-19 control measures in place. Ritsumeikan University has already had the equipment in classrooms and cafeterias antimicrobially treated, installed additional ventilation and air-conditioning systems and upgraded existing ones. We also ensure social distancing in classrooms, have set up partitions to prevent the spread of droplets in cafeterias, have introduced automatic thermometers, and conduct PCR testing on campus.

Ritsumeikan-style Campus DX Platform

Ritsumeikan University is actively introducing cyber technologies to create an environment tailored to the new campus life.

DX platform as a learning aid
The DX platform can be effectively used to make web-based classes available both on-campus and off-campus. The platform improves the quality of learning by enabling students to learn iteratively using on-demand educational materials and to study abroad virtually through a web-based student exchange program offered as part of global education. To build this learning environment, we combine the advantages of both in-person learning and online learning; these two modes are not mutually exclusive, but are mutually supportive.

Ritsumeikan Cyber-Campus, a DX platform for peer support
We will work in cooperation with students to launch Ritsumeikan Cyber-Campus, a platform that allows new students to contact and interact with student clubs and circles, and Orientation Conductor (Oritor), a group to support new students, online. This platform will be first used to provide information on student clubs and circles, and then to facilitate interactions and communications between new and existing students, and among all students.

We have summarized our vision of the new campus life into “Seven Declarations.” I hope you will address social issues that are becoming increasingly complex with the knowledge and skills acquired through the new learning opportunities.
Ritsumeikan University promises to build a stimulating campus environment and support you both in learning and campus life to ensure all of you will take pride in having studied at Ritsumeikan University.

*Tutoring methods and availability of facilities may change depending on the response of the national government and/or local government to the Covid-19 situation and the BCP level of Ritsumeikan University.