The goal of the ACE Program is to take liberal arts education as the foundation for cultivating human talent that is capable of thinking seriously about, and taking action to address, the various issues facing Asia and the global community as a whole in today’s world, through collaboration that involves multi-faceted collaboration between students living and studying in the Asian cultural ecumene, which is rich in both shared features and diversity, and other inhabitants of the region, in a manner that transcends both the boundaries between academic disciplines and geographical boundaries.
The kind of global talent that the ACE Program aims to cultivate is people who have a multi-faceted, thorough understanding of the global issues currently facing the world, based on in-depth knowledge of the past and present of the Asia region, and who are able to exercise leadership in the international community to collaboratively build the future. Such individuals will be able to make their presence felt, not only in terms of the development of the Asia region but also in terms of building a future for the whole world, through leadership that is based on an appropriate understanding of others and on effective communication. The ACE Program defines this type of human talent as “global leaders, with their roots in Asia, working together to build the future,” and as individuals who possess six core skills: Critical thinking, Collaboration, Communication, Consilience, Challenge, and Cosmopolitan.
More specifically, “global leaders, with their roots in Asia, working together to build the future” means the following kinds of human talent:
Individuals with an in-depth understanding of the problems affecting Asia, and with the cognitive abilities needed in order to position these problems in relation to global issues.
Individuals with the ability to effect transformations, capable of generating new initiatives within today’s rapidly developing, rapidly changing Asian societies, and demonstrating these initiatives to the world.
Individuals who possess the empathy and collaborative spirit needed to exercise leadership based on the ability to understand and communicate effectively with others, overcoming the complex nature of relationships between neighboring countries.
In order to cultivate “global leaders, with their roots in Asia, working together to build the future,” the four participating universities are working together to develop and implement a C6ubic Curriculum that will incorporate the six core skills noted in the table below. The aim is for students enrolled in the ACE Program to have mastered all of these six core skills by the time they complete the program.
In 2014, Rikkyo University announced its Rikkyo Global 24 internationalization strategy, with the aim of cultivating “globally aspiring individuals with liberal arts skills and knowledge.” Rikkyo Global 24 attached particular importance to three fundamental global capabilities: “The capability to think, the capability to transform, and the capability for empathy and collaboration.”
The capability to think means “the ability to logically tackle, head-on, difficult problems such as environmental problems and ethnic and religious conflicts,” which corresponds principally to the “Critical thinking” skill of the ACE Program’s six core skills.
The capability to transform means “the ability to create new mechanisms that respond flexibly to society through fluidization beyond borders with respect to people, information, culture, values, and the like,” which corresponds principally to the “Consilience” and “Challenge” skills of the ACE Program’s six core skills.
The capability for empathy and collaboration means “the ability to solve problems together with people who have different customs and cultures, based on the foundation of excellent communication skills,” which corresponds to the “Collaboration,” “Communication” and “Cosmopolitan” skills of the ACE Program’s six core skills.
