Wednesday, November 04, 2015

UNCW is honored to host representatives from two prestigious national universities in Japan. Takou Kominato of Kyusyu University and Toshiyuki Shimada from Ibaraki University, both highly esteemed institutional research (IR) professionals, will visit UNCW’s Office of Institutional Research and Assessment (OIRA) Nov. 3-4. 

OIRA, the official source of all statistics related to UNCW, is led by Assistant Provost Rigoberto J. Rincones-Gómez. During their visit, Kominato and Shimada will learn how the OIRA functions and collaborates with other offices. Specifically, they will explore the data-driven decision-making processes supported and facilitated by the office, the processes used to build the OIRA official datasets and how the datasets are used in institutional assessment and planning.

Kominato is an associate professor in the School of Arts and Science at Kyusyu University. One of the leading IR professionals in Japan, he specializes in higher education management. He is chair of the Japanese Consortium of Accreditation Coordinators for Higher Education, which Shimada co-chairs.

Shimada, an associate professor in the Office of Institutional Research and Planning at Ibaraki University, has been visiting universities across the nation to train and mentor new IR professionals.

The IR field is relatively new in Japan. At the direction of the Japanese government, universities began establishing IR offices to evaluate their strategic plans about a decade ago. Both Kominato and Shimada have been instrumental in laying the groundwork of IR in their country through their work, research and outreach efforts.

After visiting UNCW, Kominato and Shimada will travel to Bemidji State University in Minnesota and North Dakota State University.

-- Caroline Cropp

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