たむなすさんの おぼえた日記 - 2022年9月8日(木)

ラジオビジネス英語

Interview 6
Kate Harris(1) 2022年0月1日放送

（前半）

今月は東京大学シニア・リサーチ・アドミニストレーターのケイト・ハリスさんのお話を伺います。
リサーチ・アドミニストレーターはUniversity Research Administratorの頭文字をとってURAと呼ばれています。
第1回の今回はURAとはどのような仕事なのか、また、最近のハリスさんのプロジェクトについて話を伺いました。

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[Listening point]

1. What is the role of a university research administrator?
リサーチ・アドミニストレーター(URA)の役割は何ですか？
--It is to support the university faculty and researchers, so they have more time to concentrate on their research and teaching.
大学の教員や研究者が研究や教育に専念できる時間を増やせるようサポートすることです。

2. What does Dr. Harris’s role regarding the management of international and educational programs entail?
国際プログラムや教育プログラムの運営におけるハリスさんの役割は何ですか？
--Her role is to set up programs, manage the budget and solve any issues that come up while the programs are running.
プログラムを立ち上げ、予算を管理し、プログラムの実施中に発生する問題を解決するのが彼女の役割です。

このように、リサーチ・アドミニストレーターとは研究者が研究に専念できるように支援する仕事です。
研究活動に付随する業務や研究資金の申請業務と適正管理などを担当し、研究者をサポートしています。

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Shibata: Kate Harris, welcome to “Business English for Global Competence”.
It’s a great pleasure to have you with us here today.

Harris: It’s great to be here, too.
Thank for inviting me.

S: So, first of all, could you give us a brief overview of your responsibility as a URA, a University research Administrator?

H: Sure.
So the URA position has only been around for about ten years or so in Japan, so I guess not many people know much about the position if they’re not working in the university, but it has existed for about fifty years in the US.
It developed in response to the increasing number of extra tasks that researchers have had to take on in addition to the research and teaching duties.
So I think every URA probably has a different job description, but overall our aim is to support the university faculty and researchers so they have more time to concentrate on their research and teaching, and not all the extra administrative tasks.
So this often means that we act as a kind of a bridge between the faculty and the administrative staff and we have to understand both sides -- how both sides think and how both sides work.

S: You’ve talked about a job description.
What is your job description?

H: My job description.
So my job description, I do not really have a job description, but whereas a lot of… many URAs focus on helping researchers to get funding for their research, I’m more involved in the project management after they get the funding.
And I also focus on educational projects, international projects rather than research itself.

S: I see.
Now that we’ve gotten a big picture, perhaps you can talk us through one of your recent projects.

H: And so what have I been doing recently?
So I’m mainly involved in the project management of international and educational programs, so we get funding from the government to set up these programs, and I work with the faculty and the accounting team to manage the budget that we get from the government.
And then also with the faculty and the student affairs team to set up the program and to managing or solving issues that come up while we’re running program.
And I’ve also just finished writing a big report for the mid-term evaluation of one of these projects.
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（後半に続く）