大学案内｜ABOUT MDU

The entrance ceremony for Matsumoto Dental University (MDU) and the Matsumoto Dental University School of Dental Hygiene for the academic year 2007 was held in the lecture hall at 11:00 am on Friday, April 6th. A total of 169 freshmen of MDU, the Graduate School and the School of Dental Hygiene, on the verge of their new student life, were celebrated by their parents, MDU directors, lecturers and staff full of delight and expectation.

A ceremony to present certificates to students who achieved excellent academic results in 2006 was held in the student hall of the library building on Friday, April 6th. Awards including the Yasushi Yagasaki Special Award were presented to a total of 37 students. Two students received the Yasushi Yagasaki Special Award; 17 students, the Yasushi Yagasaki Award; 14 students, the Encouragement Award; 1 student, the Sports Award; and 3 students, the Activity Award.

Most of the orientation for the freshmen was held in the student hall of the library building from Monday 9th to Saturday 14th, April. Lecturers explained the curriculums and courses for the next six years, and college rules, such as having to wear white overalls and the necessity of carrying a student identification card.

Freshmen were given training in manners on Friday 13th and Saturday 14th by Ms. Hatsumi Nagayoshi and Ms. Mariko Iwata of ANA Learning. The freshmen learned about the ideal mental attitude for university life, the norms of society, the importance of greetings and appropriate ways of talking.

MDU researchers studying tissue engineering met in the Mae and Oku Hotakadake Room of the 30th Anniversary Building on Monday, March 26th to exchange information on their research, hoping for further developments in their field of study. They discussed the link between general diseases and gingival diseases together with their guest, Dr. Nobuya Maejima, director of MDU Medical Clinic, in order to establish a collaborating medical and dental
treatment system. Topics discussed were the link between gingival diseases and general diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and obesity, based on a presentation by Professor Nobuo Yoshinari (periodontics) of Operative Dentistry 1, and MDU’s health examination project.

MDU purchased 130 of the latest digital microscopes for histology and pathology microscope training for use starting this academic year. Third-year students have already started using the microscopes in their oral histology training.

These digital microscopes, manufactured by Shimadzu Rika, incorporate a 2 million-pixel digital camera and transfer images to computers, relieving students of the burden of much drawing. They are useful to raise students’ ability to comprehend images. Not many dental universities are equipped with the latest digital microscopes like these.

Eighty first-year students of Iida High School in Iida, Nagano Prefecture, made a study visit to MDU on Thursday, April 12th. They started visiting universities in Nagano Prefecture from this academic year to raise their interest in, and their understanding of, universities, as part of a guidance program to assist the students into tertiary education.

Staff of MDU Public Relations Section explained MDU’s education system, facilities, the latest research, etc., to the students in classroom 106 in the lecture hall building. Then the students moved to room 101 in the training building where they were told the features of MDU and the new hospital by Assistant Professor Takashi Uematsu of the Oral Biology Course of the MDU Graduate School of Oral Medicine — an Iida High School alumnus. Professor Naoyuki Takahashi of the Division of Hard Tissue Research of the MDU Institute for Oral Science informed them of the institute’s latest research in a way that was easy to understand using a slide show in the institute’s seminar room. The students visited the operative dentistry section and the Prosthodontics section at MDU Hospital.