Topic ① Hiroshi Kanai Professor (Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University; project leader for Tohoku University Research with Impact on Society: G0 "Academia Supporting Communities”)
　The role of universities in contributing to the pivotal demands of society is currently being discussed. The main points are the need to deepen university education and develop independent thinkers to build a sustainable and mindful society. For these purposes, universities should clarify the positionality of both specialized and liberal arts education.

　During the post-war society that was overly competitive, performance-oriented, and based on self-interest-driven market economy principles, a series of neoliberal university reforms made it more difficult to solve social issues. Consequentially, many students are educated under the principles of efficiency and self-centeredness, making them apathetic, unimaginative, and vaguely anxious. Professional education―which fosters problem-solving skills at undergraduate and graduate levels and focuses on solving goals set within one's own expertise― can promote problem-solving skills, including the mental aspect, but it is inadequate for solving social issues.

　Therefore, liberal arts education, which has been overlooked until now, is crucial. Liberal arts education emphasizes three points: the ability to uncover social issues, the formation of a foundation, and human development. In other words, liberal arts education does not only encompass research-based problem-solving skills ―which has been the focus of conventional specialized education―but also the ability to uncover and discover issues in modern society: to pursue the ideal society away from market economy principles, to create scenarios in cooperation with society that are necessary for value creation, and to nurture the human spirit by asking fundamental questions such as what human beings are and what they should be. By fostering the spirit of humanity through questioning the very foundations of human nature, liberal arts education is expected to not only solve social issues but also bring happiness to humankind.

　Japan has overlooked liberal arts education to date, with many universities abolishing their liberal arts programs because of the deregulation of the Standards for the Establishment of Universities in 1991. However, specialized education and liberal arts education are useful in different phases. While specialized education is useful in the era of “order,” specialization in a field weakens the ability to respond to crises. Liberal arts education, on the other hand, is of no use in peaceful everyday life but is meant to nurture people who can provide deep insights and make out-of-the-box judgments when social assumptions are disrupted in some way. The convergence of knowledge required today can only be gained in a bottom-up form of both education types. Based on these considerations, we need university education to create a system that promotes cross-field interactions.

　One example of this education model implemented at Tohoku University is the introduction of "Engineering Ethics" as a mandatory course in the School of Engineering. The course is not efficiency-oriented but fosters each student's intrinsic motivation to absorb interdisciplinary knowledge as they aim to become wiser and more aware of the value and excitement of knowledge. Based on this premise, students will acquire a liberal arts education from the three perspectives mentioned above: the ability to uncover social issues, the formation of a foundation, and human development.

　We are facing numerous social challenges. One reason such issues remain unresolved, is the further division of academic fields: a challenge universities face. Isolating fields from one another and a high degree of specialization have led to research being conducted at universities without solving general (societal?) issues. As a result, researchers only explore applications of the technology they have developed and do not apply the optimal method in consideration of the actual situation. Another problem is that the belief that “a good university is one that excels in research” has led people to believe university education should be exclusively specialized. In fact, an ideal university should have "an attached graduate school that provides a morally and intellectually balanced liberal arts education to its undergraduate counterpart.”

　Based on the above, deepening university education, increasing the number of wise people who think autonomously, and clarifying the positionality of specialized education and liberal arts education are the responsibilities of universities today. Fulfilling such responsibilities will lead to the achievement of a sustainable and spiritually rich society.

Topic ➁　“COVID-19 and Scientific Technologies”
Hitoshi Oshitani (Professor from the Department of Virology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine)
　Before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, given the advancement in scientific technologies, people expected that technology would solve social challenges, including pandemics. However, with the reduction in vaccine efficacy since the emergence of the Omicron variant, and the failure to confirm the efficacy of various COVID-19 therapeutics in clinical trials, technology could not solve the problem as initially hoped.

　During this pandemic, mathematical models were extensively used to estimate deaths and evaluate policy. Scientific evidence has emphasized reproducibility where identical results are obtained by repeating experiments under the same conditions. However, since the real world cannot be simulated precisely, the only solution was to construct mathematical models and repeat virtual simulations. There was no guarantee that the parameters and assumptions used in mathematical models are consistent with the real world. Furthermore, many mathematical models assume uniformity in terms of ease of transmission and people's behavior. However, the current mathematical models do not fully consider the considerable heterogeneity in secondary COVID-19 infections.

　We humans living in the 21st century are facing multiple critical social challenges, including not only the COVID-19 pandemic but also global warming and food shortages. Many people vaguely believe that scientific technologies will solve these problems. However, with a population of 8 billion, the earth has already reached its limits, and we should understand that there are limits to what scientific technologies can solve as well. In fact, hasn't the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the limits of scientific technology in a very short period? We must seriously discuss how we should face issues that cannot be solved by scientific technologies.

　To discuss issues for which there are no correct answers, the "convergence of knowledge" is necessary. We must incorporate not only the natural sciences but also the humanities and social sciences. Through converging knowledge, reexamining the modernization of Japan since the Meiji era and its adverse effects, and examining the differences in perspectives between Japan and the West, we might be able to find hints that help us understand the COVID-19 pandemic.