by Ralph Abraham
PART I: The Future University, Hakodate (Hokkaido)

The Future University, Hakodate (FUN) has presently only two departments, Media Architecture (MA) and Complex Systems (CS). The MA department has about two thirds of the students (total number about 1000) and the faculty (about 50). It overlaps the CS subject area to some degree. My invitation originated from Professor Yoshisuke Ueda, Chair of the CS Department. He is an internationally known pioneer and expert of chaos theory.

Since the founding of the FUN in 2000, this has been (to my knowledge) the world's only undergraduate program in complex dynamical systems theory. As such, I have been very interested in its evolution, so I greatly looked forward to this visit.

Activities

During my week in Hakodate, I visited with Professor Ueda every day, participated in one undergraduate seminar group, gave a recorded interview with Professor Numata of the CS Department, gave two lectures, one on CS theory, the other on the chaos revolution, discussed extensively with two graduate students, and met a number of younger staff.

Findings

Despite impressive physical space and equipment, an ambitious and revolutionary program, and the presence of the international known Professor Ueda, I was rather disappointed. The average level of staff and students was far below expectation. The academic atmosphere was that of an unambitious secondary school, rather than a research university of national or international stature.

In fact, my primary disappointment was that the students were not sufficiently advanced to learn the basic concepts of complex dynamical systems theory at all. They were mostly at the starting level of simple dynamical systems theory, that is, traditional nonlinear dynamics. Some ideas of complex systems are being taught, but the program seems poorly organised. For example, I was surprised to learn that quantum mechanics was covered, but not classical mechanics, in the undergraduate CS program.

Recommendations

Many of our discussions at the FUN were focused on strategies for improving the levels of capability and ambition of the students and staff. In this connection, in my opinion, the Future University, Hakodate could:

(1) Form an advisory board of internationally respected academic experts in complex systems theory and applications to guide the further development of the educational programs.

(2) Allocate funds to attract at least four more international figures to raise the level of the faculty, they must be offered competitive salaries, teaching loads, and research support.

(3) Expand the graduate program to complement the undergraduate program in the usual proportions.

(4) Employ media consultants to improve the public image of the university throughout Japan.