President Hisataka Moriwaki and Dr. Fumiaki Suzuki, Executive Director for International Affairs and Public Relations attended the 3^rd Japan-Indonesia Rectors' Conference held at Hokkaido University from November 5 to 6, 2015. The 1^st conference was held at Nagoya University in October 2012 followed by the 2^nd conference at Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia in December 2013. Presidents of Gifu University took part in all of these three conferences.

The theme of the 3^rd conference was "Collaboration in Research and Education for Sustainable Society." From Japan, representatives of 28 universities, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and Japan Association of National Universities attended. From Indonesia, officials from 23 universities, the Ministry of Education and Culture, and Embassy of Japan in Indonesia joined the conference.

Gifu University has a university- and faculty-level partnership with 10 Indonesian universities. Currently 43 students from Indonesia are studying at the University (accounting for 12.3% of all the international students enrolled at Gifu University). This figure is the second largest after Chinese students at Gifu University today.

Presidents of Bogor Agricultural University, Gadjah Mada University and Bandung Institute of Technology, all of which have an agreement of exchange with Gifu University, were attending the conference. President Moriwaki had an opportunity to exchange opinions with Prof. Dr. Herry Suhardiyanto, Rector of Bogor Agricultural University over a continued cooperation in education and research activities.

In the Parallel Working Group Sessions, participants were divided into small groups under three different themes: i) Education Collaboration, ii) Research Collaboration and iii) Industry and University Cooperation in Innovation. President Moriwaki made a presentation about educational cooperation with the partner universities in Indonesia in the sessions under the theme of Education Collaboration.

Population of Indonesia is 250 million and its annual population growth is 1.2%. As the percentage of youths is rather high, many new universities with special focus on IT education are built up one after another to meet their needs.

In the 3^rd conference, many Indonesian universities expressed their wishes for future collaboration with Gifu University. It is expected that Gifu University will further facilitate and strengthen ties with universities in Indonesia in years to come.