University of Tokyo Joins edX

By Christine E Mansour

The University of Tokyo joined edX on Tuesday, becoming the 32nd institution to partner with the online education platform, which was created by Harvard and MIT in May 2012.

The University of Tokyo was founded in 1877 as the first national university in Japan and now has a total of about 28,000 students according to its website. It is considered to be one of the best institutions of higher learning  in Asia.

The first two courses to be offered on UTokyoX will be “Visualizing Postwar Tokyo: Parts 1 and 2.” The courses will both be taught by Shunya Yoshimi, a vice president of the University of Tokyo and a professor of sociology, cultural studies, and media studies.

“I am extremely pleased to be able to present the courses to the people around the world that will deepen their understanding of Japan,” Yoshimi said in a press release. “With the implementation of flipped classroom that actively uses these courses, I believe that we will contribute to the bolstering of education at UTokyo that will foster global-minded human resources."

The two courses, slated to launch later this year, cover the history, development, and geopolitics of postwar Tokyo from the perspective of cultural media including film, photography, and television.

“We are committed to offering courses from institutions as diverse as the nearly two million students on our platform,” Anant Agarwal, the president of edX, said in the press release. “As one of the leading research universities in the world, The University of Tokyo will help us achieve that goal."

Registration for the UTokyoX courses is currently open.

The University of Tokyo joins the University of Kyoto as the only Japanese institutions on the platform. The consortium, consisting of 32 institutions of higher learning, has expanded globally in the last year. To date, the consortium counts 18 partnerships outside of the U.S..

—Staff writer Michael V. Rothberg can be reached at mrothberg@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @mvrothberg.