Kobe City chose Kwansei Gakuin (Nishinomiya City, Hyogo Prefecture) as the preferred negotiating right holder in an open call for bids to attract a university to the City of Oji Park (Oji-cho, Nada Ward), which has a zoo and sports facilities. Along with the redevelopment of the park, a university will be established and operated on the east side of the park (approximately 3.5 hectares) where the current "Oji Stadium" is located. The concept is to create a campus that is open to the city, harmonized with lush green scenery such as Mt. Rokko, and integrated with the park. It aims to open around 2029-31.
Photo of Oji campus (provided by Kobe city)
When establishing and operating the university, the city will transfer the land for a fee. The planned transfer price at the public offering stage was 10 billion yen (approximately 285,000 yen per square meter).
According to the outline of the proposal, the name of the university to be established is "Kwansei Gakuin University Oji Campus." As an educational concept, we are looking forward to the difficult-to-predict VUCA (Variable, Uncertainty, Complex, and Ambiguous) era, working with others and different fields to solve regional and global issues, and fostering and fostering human resources who will bring about innovation. Aim to produce.
The campus is expected to have approximately 4,000 students and approximately 200 faculty members. Positioning the campus as the hub of the innovation ecosystem, faculty members and students with a rich internationality will develop initiatives such as entrepreneurship support with industry, government, academia, and citizens. Various facilities on campus will be open to local residents and park users as spaces that can be easily visited by multiple generations.
In terms of scenery, we plan to design a landscape and school buildings that are in harmony with the lush green Rokko mountain range. The courtyard and other external spaces are open to the public, providing a space where park users and local residents can easily visit. Various facilities such as the cafeteria, terrace, and open lab will also be open to the public.
After exchanging a memorandum with the city and the preferential negotiating right holder, we plan to formulate a business implementation plan and conclude a basic agreement. After going through the procedures for changing the city plan, a land transfer contract is concluded, and after the city council approves the disposal of the land, the land will be handed over and the campus development work will begin.
