Course Description

Top Global Course and Requirements for Completion

Top Global Course in Mathematics established within the Kyoto University Top Global University Project officially launched the registration of students in 2016 after it got its three pioneer graduates in 2015. For the time being, the degree “Doctor of Science” will be awarded upon completion of the course and, in addition to the diploma, a “Certificate of Completion of the Top Global Course in Mathematics” will be issued after screening.

Requirements for completing the Top Global Course in Mathematics are as follows:

  1. As a rule, the student shall spend at least three months in a university or research institute overseas with the purpose of pursuing research related to the doctoral thesis. The three-month period may be split into several parts and stays abroad during master’s course are also counted.
  2. A researcher from a university or research institute overseas shall act as the co-supervisor of the student, and the student shall receive research guidance from the co-supervisor on the topic of his/her doctoral thesis.
  3. The student’s doctoral thesis shall be peer-reviewed by the co-supervisor.
  4. The student shall obtain at least two credits (or an equivalent) from the designated lectures.

Notes:

  • The co-supervisor must be approved both by the Mathematics Unit committee and the committee of the Graduate School of Science.
  • The designated lectures include Top Global Course special lectures given by Distinguished Visiting Professors and also ESL lectures that are scheduled to be available in the near future.
  • Credit equivalent refers to the case of a doctoral student attending and passing a lecture.

Lectures

In Top Global Course, we invite prominent researchers to stay at Kyoto University as "Distinguished Visiting Professors" or "Distinguished Visiting Project Professors" for one month or more and to give one-credit intensive lecture series.

There are two types of these lectures: “Special Lectures” are targeted at graduate students and give introduction to the most advanced research topics, while “Basic Lectures” are designed for fourth grade undergraduate to master’s students and cover more elementary parts. In addition, "Introductory Lectures" for undergraduate students take place occasionally. The Special Lectures are video recorded and made available online, sometimes together with lecture notes taken by graduate students.

Please see the "Special lectures", "Intensive lectures" or "Conferences" page for archive of past lectures. Lecture videos are available at the "Multimedia" page.

Co-Supervision program

In the doctoral course, students have the opportunity to receive research guidance and to have their doctoral thesis co-supervised by prominent overseas researchers who are appointed as “Distinguished Visiting Professors” at Kyoto University.

Research guidance is conducted at either Kyoto University or at the overseas institution where the co-supervisor is affiliated to, as well as via e-mail or video conference system.

As a rule, the co-supervisor also participates in the doctoral thesis defense committee together with Kyoto University faculty members.

ESL Lectures

ESL (English as a Second Language) Lectures, targeted at graduate students at the Department of Mathematics and RIMS, focus on developing the students’ ability to convey mathematical ideas in English. Through the lectures, students gain experience and knowledge about the ways and rules of communication in English as well as fundamental writing skills required for producing scientific papers.

ESL Lectures are open to all graduate students at the Department of Mathematics and RIMS. However, when the number of applicants exceeds the limit, master's students, especially those who intend to pursue doctoral studies, will be prioritized. Although one credit valid for the Top Global Course is awarded upon successful completion, it is not required to enrol in the Top Global Course in order to attend ESL Lectures.

Overseas Studies

Students who have registered for the Top Global Course and wish to visit their co-supervisors or potential co-supervisors overseas are offered subsidies to cover their travel expenses.

Yoshida School

The Summer Math Camp followed by a lecture series in the fall semester is designed mainly for the first year undergraduate students at the Faculty of Science who are interested in pursuing mathematics.

Yoshida School - Summer Camp


Around 20 undergraduate students participate in this three-day summer camp taking place every year in the mid-late summer at Kyoto Seminar House located in the mountainous northern part of Kyoto. Two introductory lectures on various mathematical topics given by the participating teachers are followed by exercise sessions, where students tackle related problems at various levels of difficulty and present their results in front of everyone.

The contents are more advanced than those of regular lectures on campus, and the students are literally immersed in mathematics for the whole three days. Furthermore, the barbecue party on the second night provides a rare opportunity for the students to interact casually with faculty members and graduate students who participate in the camp as tutors. Registration for the camp opens around July.

Yoshida School - Lecture Series

Faculty members who presented at the summer camp will then give a four to five day lecture series in the fall semester at the Department of Mathematics. The lectures series usually covers the same topics as in the camp, but in more depth and detail. These lectures are open to all students including those who did not participate in the summer camp.

Small Group Seminars

Small Group Seminars are reading groups designed mainly for first and second year undergraduate students. Each group is led by tutors selected among graduate students registered for the Top Global Course, who present to the members several textbooks on diverse mathematical disciplines and invite them to choose those that match their interests. Registration for the seminars begins in April every year.

Student Colloquium

As part of activities in Mathematics Unit, we organize Student Colloquium as follows, to facilitate communications among the graduate students.

  • The talk is normally delivered in Japanese.
  • We ask the speaker to prepare a talk accessible to students in diverse fields of mathematics.
  • We encourage the participants to ask questions at any time.
  • We do not fix the end time of the talk, though we ask the speaker to prepare a one-hour talk.

Even if you are not a graduate student, nor a Kyoto University member, we welcome your participation if you agree with the above purpose and rules.

In case the Student Colloquium is held online, we ask the participants to follow the procedure below.

If you wish to attend the Colloquium for the first time in a fiscal year, please fill in the registration form. A participant should make a registration only once, preferably by the day before the colloquium. Within a few days after submitting the registration form, you will receive an invitation e-mail. It will enable you to access our project site in PandA, via which you can join the Zoom meetings for the all subsequent colloquia in the fiscal year. As for "PandA", please see this page, and ask the organizers any questions.

Organizers: Soichiro Fujii, Masayuki Hayashi, and Tsuyoshi Kato.
For inquiries please contact Soichiro Fujii at  sfujii (at) kurims.kyoto-u.ac.jp