CWU Signs MOU with Japan’s Kurume Institute of Technology

CWU has completed work on a new Memorandum of Understanding with Kurume Institute of Technology. The MOU, signed by CWU President James L. Gaudino and Kurume President Katsumi Imaizumi, was completed a year after a group of about a dozen Kurume students came to Ellensburg to study English language and culture at the university and in the community.

Those students were led by CWU alumnus Rich Lee, who works for Kurume Institute, and professor Hidenobu Igawa, from the school’s department of engineering.

“It turned out that the professor is also an advisor to President Imaizumi,” explained Sherri Fujita, CWU director of University English as a Second Language Program. “He [Igawa] loved it here and got a really good impression. While they were here, I introduced them to the faculty, particularly in engineering technology. They had a meeting just to talk about mutual interests. Both sides were excited about the possibilities. So, we decided to mutually move forward with the MOU.”

While the memorandum was actually completed last fall, the decision was to hold off on an official signing until now, in order to allow Imaizumi to come to Ellensburg to sign it in person and meet with President Gaudino.

“President Imaizumi decided to come and see us in person, probably, about six-months ago—which was exciting for us,” Fujita pointed out. “At the same time, they decided to bring a group of students to study in our WorldCat Summer Program.”

The program included having the students participate in a service-learning project at Olmstead State Park, along with visits to Seattle, Leavenworth, and Roslyn.

Now that the MOU is complete, additional partnership between the two higher education institutions are expected to be crafted and launched.

“It could be faculty or student exchanges, shared or a joint research project, or our faculty might want to provide distance education linking classes in both schools, where they could interact and collaborate digitally,” Fujita pointed out. “Those details will be worked out at the department level.”

Collaborations involving CWU Information Technology and Administrative Management and Aviation are among other potential partnerships.

“They (the Kurume students) had a look at our flight simulators,” Fujita added. “It was very interesting, because the Kurume Institute of Technology is planning to open an aviation management program on its campus. So, they’re very interested in collaborations specifically to do with aviation management and, maybe, pilot training.”

The new accord builds upon a long-standing relationship that CWU already enjoys with the University of Shimane Junior College, which is also located in Japan, and similar agreements the university has in place with other schools and communities around the world.

Media contact: Robert Lowery, director of Radio Services and Integrated Communications, 509-963-1487, Robert.Lowery@cwu.edu

Photo: Kurume Institute of Technology President Katsumi Imaizumi and CWU President James L. Gaudino participate in gift exchange as part of the Memorandum of Understanding signing ceremony.