Information regarding SYLFF follow-up programs, including the JREX Program and the activities of the JREX Selection Committee, which are mentioned in the "Update" section (p. 9), announcements, application forms, and application guidelines, is available at the Scholarship Division's Website (http://www.tkfd.or.jp/eng/scholar/index.html) in the "Fellowship and Grants" section. If you are unable to access and/or to download the information, send an e-mail message to scholarship@tkfd.or.jp requesting the needed documentation.

　Please note that the Program Development Award (PDA) supplants the Administrators/Faculty Exchange (AFEX) award program.

　

　This program was established in 1998 to support the internationalization of higher education in Japan by providing awards to faculty members at Japanese universities to enable them to teach abroad in their respective disciplines and to actively participate in the academic life of their respective host institutions. Upon returning to Japan, an awardee is expected to share his or her knowledge and understanding of academic practices abroad, institutional and student needs, and expectations of the overseas host institution, and thereby to contribute to the internationalization of his or her home university.

　Are you and your institution interested in hosting a Japanese university faculty member to teach one or more regular undergraduate and/or graduate courses in degree, certificate, or diploma programs in the social sciences or humanities? If so, please visit the Scholarship Division's Website (shown above) for detailed information.

　Please note: (1) Courses in Japanese-language teaching and Japanese-language teaching methodologies are excluded; (2) Applications must be submitted by the individual faculty member of a Japanese university; and (3) The next deadline for applications is November 1, 2002.

　

　Many of you know Dr. Shoichi Katayama and Ms. Sanae Oda, both of whom have been working on the SYLFF Program for more than a decade. On December 1, 2001, Shoichi assumed the position of administrative director of the foundation's Research Division and Sanae became senior officer for general and public affairs. We wish to thank them for their many contributions to the SYLFF Program and to wish them every success in their new positions.

　On the same date, Mr. Isamu Maruyama began serving as senior officer of the Scholarship Division. Isamu joined The Tokyo Foundation in July 2001, following 18 years of service at the highly respected International House of Japan. We are pleased to welcome him to the SYLFF family.

　

　A SYLFF Fellows Data Form accompanies each issue of this newsletter. Please complete the form and return it to us if there is any change in your contact information or other relevant data. Also, please provide copies of the form to other SYLFF fellows who do not receive this newsletter, which indicates

that we do not have their current contact information.

　Do you wish to contribute to The SYLFF Newsletter? If so, please send us an e-mail message with a brief description of the writing that you would like to submit. We look forward to hearing from you.

　

　If we take one step forward beyond concurring that the sustainable development of higher education and thus of human resources is fundamentally necessary and highly desirable, we encounter a host of complexities. These complexities, as have been aptly described by Philip Altbach, an eminent expert on higher education, are in large part based upon inequality among academic systems and institutions in an increasingly differentiated and interrelated world knowledge system. These complexities reflect interplay between East and West, North and South, between Industrialized, emerging, and nonindustrialized nations; and between nations in turmoil and those that are not. This constellation of complexities has, of course, other features, such as the push and pull of oftentimes conflicting local, national, regional, and global forces.

　Our modest SYLFF network of 81 institutions of higher learning reflects these complexities, and it includes individuals and institutions in nations that dominate scholarship and communications, as well as those in nations of lesser academic influence. Let us overcome these differences and engage in open and reasoned discourse that leads to collaboration that is mutually beneficial to all participants in terms of content and process. Let us also explore ways in which SYLFF fellows, faculty members, administrators, and institutions can develop and demonstrate the best practices of transnational collaboration and achieve significant results concerning issues of mutual concern. Let us together move beyond the traditional modes of cooperation and instead develop collaborative processes that transcend geopolitical, cultural, disciplinary, and organizational borders―and thereby enrich all of the stakeholders.