Gifu University/Tottori University Joint Graduate School of Veterinary Sciences was established in April 2019. Until the establishment of this joint graduate school, Gifu University had been organizing the United Graduate School of Veterinary Sciences with Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Iwate University, and Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, while Tottori University had been organizing the United Graduate School of Veterinary Sciences with Yamaguchi University and Kagoshima University, and they have been responsible for the training of researchers in various fields of veterinary sciences. Both universities have co-created a new graduate school based on the achievements cultivated in different graduate schools. The first students enrolled in the graduate school will receive a PhD degree in 2022. Excellent students can complete the program in three years, so that some students already received a PhD degree.

The Joint Graduate School of Veterinary Sciences offers educational programs to train “Animal Hygiene and Public Health Specialists,” “One Health Specialists,” and “Treatment of Intractable Diseases and Drug Discovery Specialists” to provide advanced specialization based on the veterinary generalist education at the undergraduate level. The objectives are to train animal hygiene and public health specialists who can take the lead in the fight against infectious diseases such as swine fever and foot-and-mouth disease; one health specialists with the ability to think about maintaining worldwide health; and treatment of intractable diseases and drug discovery specialists for having the ability to promote translational research to clinically apply results from basic research to technologies and drug discovery.

There is also the Long-term Enrollment System that allows students to choose a term of four years or more at the time of admission, and credits can be earned also online, so that a wide variety of students, including working professionals, can study according to their circumstances. The “6th Science, Technology and Innovation Basic Plan” approved by the Cabinet in 2021 states that it will strengthen financial support and improve treatment for PhD students. In the future, living expenses and research expenses will be supported so that you can concentrate on your research. Regardless of your current job title or position, we recommend that you enroll in our Graduate School if you have a desire to acquire a high level of expertise.

The entire faculty and staff of the Graduate School of Veterinary Sciences will continue to make every effort to develop and enhance the education and research of the Graduate School. Your understanding and support will be greatly appreciated.

On April 1st, 2021, I have received an official appointment as the dean of the Joint Graduate School of Veterinary Sciences of Tottori University. Our graduate school was established as the Joint Graduate School of Gifu and Tottori University in April, 2019 and entered the 3rd year in April, 2021. We conduct the collaborative education with the Joint Graduate School of Gifu University. Our idea of education and research is to develop the veterinary science specialists who play a key leadership role in global society and local community with advanced expert knowledge, sophisticated skills and high ethical standards. We aim to foster the educators and researchers who contribute to the promotion of the advanced research on animal and human health and ecological integrity and also contribute to the sophistication of veterinary science.

Recently, various domestic animal infectious diseases such as highly pathogenic avian influenza and classical swine fever have been spreading in Japan. Under these circumstances, veterinary doctors are required to possess advanced knowledge, sophisticated skills and high degree of expertise more than ever. In addition to the education and research to foster researchers, to meet the practical needs of society such as infectious disease control and advanced veterinary medicine, we are promoting the training programs to foster the specialists on the following three areas.

i)

Animal hygiene and public health specialist specialized for combating infectious diseases.

ii)

One health specialist specialized for solving the problems such as zoonotic diseases through comprehensive understanding of human, animals and environment.

iii)

Specialists to treat intractable diseases and to develop new drugs specialized for the translational research to link between basic research and clinical research.

In our collaborative education programs with Gifu University, we have been promoting online education and research training and improving the needed facilities since the launch of our collaborative education. These facilities are used for training of the working students who pursue higher degrees while working in locations away from our campus, and happen to work effectively on the research training under the condition of SARS-CoV-2 infection spread. We improve the support for the working students by introducing Long-term Enrollment System in addition to the online research training. Furthermore, our department is strengthening to respond to globalization and promoting the overseas research conference attendance and research activity. In 2020, we signed an academic exchange agreement with the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Airlangga University in Indonesia. The students and faculty staff in our graduate school participate in the online symposia to promote exchanges, although any transnational activities are in a difficult situation at present.

As of November in 2021, it is still not certain when SARS-CoV-2 infection spread ends, which has various impacts on our graduate school to inconvenience numbers of people. However, we are going to have the thesis defense of the first students of our graduate school in 2021 and 2022, and all the staff are making greater efforts toward the development and enhancement of the education and research in the Joint Graduate School of Veterinary Sciences. I ask for your in-depth understanding and continuous support.