Faculties and Departments
In April 2013 the graduate schools of this university carried out a major reorganization while retaining the existing education / research fields, establishing two new graduate schools. One of these is the Graduate School of Creativity and Culture (carrying on the name of a former graduate school). The major is for Creativity and Culture only, with a doctoral program consisting of five fields. The names of the new departments (and corresponding major and course names used by the former graduate school) are as follows.
Development of technology has led to great strides in human civilization, but the remarkable progress made starting during the last century in particular has ironically laid waste to certain spiritual aspects of human culture. As a result, various disasters have struck contemporary society, giving rise to a state of affairs that belies civilization’s true character and potential--in short, to a world that is not conducive to fulfilling human life.
We who live in this contemporary society must create a new culture to serve as a model for the modern lifestyle by studying the spiritual accomplishments and accumulated wisdom of ancient humankind, identifying the true essence of civilization, and using the results of that effort as tools to create that new culture. While scholars have been apt to treat culture as a static concept, we must transform it, giving it an active and dynamic character in our richly diverse contemporary society. This focus on culture and creativity is reflected in the Graduate School’s name.
The Graduate School considers its mission to be thinking about how to combine the technology required by contemporary society with spiritual culture from the standpoint of culture and creativity, scrutinizing the issues, discovering new insights, and proposing new solutions. To that end, we combined a range of fields that share as common elements image and representation--literature, literary art, information science, media, and formative design--into a single department. The curriculum places one of the five fields at the core of each student’s studies and uses that area of study as a base from which to broaden their investigations so that they encompass other domains.
The Graduate School’s educational objective is to pursue creative expression on a sophisticated level through extensive, specialized research in each of its fields while mastering an interdisciplinary perspective.
The Field of Japanese Language and Literature welcomes students seeking to become independent researchers with a doctoral degree, to earn their teaching license (or current teachers who are working to earn a specialized certificate), or to enrich themselves through a far-reaching educational experience.
The Field of Japanese Language and Literature’s Graduate Student Lab features a desk, chair, and locker for each student as well as shared computers and printers. Basic documents necessary for research are available in the lab, and staff continue to enrich and expand the lab’s holdings in line with students’ wishes and interests.
Research findings are published individually as theses, and submissions that clear a review process are published alongside papers by instructors in the University’s research bulletin and Aichi Shukutoku University Japanese Literature and Language.
In addition to dedicating themselves to their studies at the University, graduate students are expected to participate actively in academic societies and study groups in their field of specialization, to deepen and broaden their education, and to strive to improve their gifts and skills as holders of research and teaching positions, and indeed as exceptional members of society.
In the Field of Creative Writing, students focus primarily on research into creative expression using the written word, including such forms as the Japanese tanka, novel, literary criticism, fairy tale, and drama. Coursework encompasses a broad range of expressive genres, including those of sister fields in the Graduate School, while accommodating student needs and goals.
Study and research from the dual perspectives of theory and practice form the core of the curriculum. To allow students to continue research and creative endeavors pursued on the undergraduate level in a more sophisticated and specialized manner, instructors offer practical creative and critical authoring seminars that are linked to creative theory. For example, students taking special courses foster interpretive skills and deepen their understanding and study of a variety of expressive genres through the appreciation of modern and contemporary literary works and theater and the reading of literature. Students taking special seminars polish their critical eye and creative sense by critiquing one another as they master practical knowledge and skills related to a broad range of expressive methods and texts.
In this way, the Field of Creative Writing offers hands-on training in the ability to express oneself with precision, sending promising graduates out into society with the knowledge and skills they need to enjoy meaningful engagement with creative language and expression throughout their lives.
The Field of Library and Information Science is involved in a broad range of education and research in such areas as information media, information services, information systems, and sister fields such as human dynamics.
Drawing on these theoretical foundations, it also encompasses applications in an array of areas, including research into information media functions and information distribution and services ranging from print to digital media, management of knowledge information resources, searching for information, information search behavior, information systems, knowledge and information processing, human engineering, and computational science. In addition to holding readings of research abstracts in which all graduate students and instructors participate as a way to examine the latest literature in a critical manner, the Field works to create student-centered opportunities for learning through such means as interim presentations of dissertations, advice from instructors about research, and research presentations by past graduates. Its basic stance rests on fostering solution-oriented learning and an ability to qualitatively assess phenomena.
The development of digital technology has triggered a revolution in information and communications in contemporary society, transforming the media environment. Television and other mass media are growing in complexity and scope. At the same time, widespread use of mobile phones and the Internet is allowing citizens to exchange and share information with people around the world as they become disseminators of information. Against this backdrop, we are prone to focus on superficial phenomena without understanding the true essence and properties of different types of media. The Field of Media Communication examines media as means of communicating information not only from the standpoint of expressive format and production technology, but also from a broad perspective that encompasses the historical, cultural, and social structures that serve as the basis on which media exist. In addition to studying theory, students engage in comprehensive research through seminars on topics such as media production (processes).
In the master’s program, students work to decipher message expression and strategy by senders and message recognition and understanding by recipients through a multifaceted analysis that draws on media theory, communication theory, multimedia technology (information science, etc.), and media expression (program development, etc.). Production seminars give them an opportunity to deepen their practical understanding.
In the doctoral program, students conduct empirical research into the social and cultural role of media in contemporary society based on a multifaceted assessment of media production and reception using an approach encompassing perspectives such as cultural history, media theory, and content analysis while analyzing media properties and structures.
In the Field of Urban Architectural Design, students strive to master theory and application in the planning, design, maintenance, and preservation of cities and their constituent buildings. In addition to the examination of cities and buildings from an engineering perspective, the Field’s educational and research focus encompasses the following perspectives based on the core proposition that cities and buildings are key components in contemporary society:
The Graduate School of Education builds on the foundation put in place by the Faculty of Letters The Faculty of Letters Department of Education was created in April 2007 in order to train elementary school teachers, special-needs teachers, and instructors in lifelong learning in response to recent dramatic changes in the environment in which schools and teachers function.
The Graduate School of Education builds on the foundation put in place by the Faculty of Letters Department of Education with the aim of cultivating deep scholarship informed by a broad perspective; outstanding ability to serve in careers involving education, including as a teacher in positions requiring a high level of specialization; and research skills in a range of education-related fields.
The Graduate School strives to take advantage of the University’s characteristics as a general institution of higher learning to train elementary school teachers and other instructional staff for the field of education as well as researchers in education-related fields, endowing them with the ability to grapple with the increasingly complex and diverse educational issues being faced by schools through the mastery of broad educational content, advanced specialized knowledge, and practical skills.
The basic principles by which we live our lives are currently undergoing a major shift from an emphasis on business principles, where the focus is on the pursuit of economics and efficiency, to human life principles, where the focus is on valuing humanity and fostering rich and rewarding lifestyles. Ours is an era requiring advanced specialization and academic abilities in order to pioneer a new understanding of life and quality of life from both emotional and physical standpoints, to reassess policies for improving these, and to leverage newly gained understanding to contribute to the well-being of local communities.
The Graduate School of Psychology and Medical Sciences was created to provide a base for pioneering education and research in response to the needs of this era. It builds on its organizational predecessors, the Graduate School of Psychology and the Graduate School of Medical Welfare.
The Graduate School of Psychology developed as a place enabling education and research fostering specialization in the context of a broad study of the four domains of physiological and cognitive psychology, social psychology, developmental psychology, and clinical psychology.
The Graduate School of Medical Welfare consisted of the Department of Social Services and the Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences. The former sought to train specialists in the social services who could serve as coordinators working to facilitate regional partnerships and leaders of social welfare facilities in response to diversifying social welfare needs. The latter consisted of the Speech Hearing Science Course, which trained positive speech therapists with a foundation in communication disorders and sciences, and the Visual Science Course, which trained orthoptists in the visual sciences and orthoptics. Both courses focused on training specialists with clinical research skills and the latest knowledge.
The new graduate school builds on those successes by adding the new domain of health science to address physical and mental health in the context of daily life as part of a larger experiment in achieving a new level of specialization and interdisciplinary perspective. Through integration with the Aichi Shukutoku University Health, Medicine, and Education Center (AHSMEC), which was established at the same time as the new graduate school, the educational and research opportunities afforded by the University will open paths toward a more sophisticated level of regional contribution. An outlook that does not accept defeat but that maintains humility is the foundation on which a diverse sense of professionalism that is dedicated to contributing to the local community by preserving quality of life can be built. The Graduate School is striving to create a new place for “learning while doing” based on the twin elements of practice and research.
In the Course of Psychology and Social Service, students participate in a scientific inquiry into human behavior from the three standpoints of physiology and cognition, society, and development. At the same time, they pursue research and education in order to master the knowledge and skills needed to theorize in the social service sciences and to practice social services. The systematic and interdisciplinary curriculum allows students to explore issues in the domains of psychology and social service from the standpoints of theory, research, and practice in accordance with their own needs and objectives. The Course is dedicated to training students to contribute to society by drawing on specialized knowledge in a variety of situations, which they can do thanks to their far-reaching scholarship in psychology; to coordinate a diverse range of social support so that it can be offered more effectively; and to exhibit leadership in associated research and development programs.
In the Course of Medical Sciences, students seek to master advanced, specialized knowledge and skills in the domains of speech, visual science, and health science through broad scholarship in medical science and a medical understanding of organisms. The Course offers a systematic, interdisciplinary curriculum so that students can explore knowledge and skills in these three domains from the standpoints of theory, research, and practice in accordance with their needs and objectives. It strives to endow students with knowledge and skills to enable them to participate in research and development into more effective testing, diagnosis, training, and support by systematically cultivating a deeper understanding of speech, hearing, and visual disorders, and to give them the knowledge and skills that will help them maintain and improve health in every stage of life through scientific and medical specialized knowledge of the structure, physiology, and function of the human body.
The Course also actively offers recurrent education for individuals who have been working as full-time speech therapists or orthoptists at a medical institution for a period of at least two years at the time of their admission and who have received permission from the director of their facility to continue in their position after admission.
The Course of Clinical Psychology offers a curriculum that enables students to improve the qualities required of practitioners in clinical psychology while studying a broad range of related domains, including medicine and social welfare. In particular, students master the theories that form the basis on which they will develop more sophisticated specialized knowledge through fine-grained, individual instruction and the accumulation of experience in clinical practice so that students can deepen their assessment skills, the ability to understand subjects that is so important for clinical psychotherapists and the most critical aspect of students’ training. Further, in addition to the basics of understanding and dealing with emotional issues, students can study other related domains. The Course strives to train clinical psychotherapists who combine an ability to understand subjects and adjust relationships with an ability to practice in a clinical setting in the context of a scientific understanding of human behavior, physiology, development, and social behavior.
In addition to the maintenance of cooperation and coexistence among nations and peoples, the rapidly changing state of contemporary international society points to the need for citizens of all countries to make practical contributions and engage in cultural exchange in the context of relationships of trust. The Graduate School’s mission consists of fostering an awareness of citizen exchange and training students to work in society on a practical level through advanced, academic study in the fields of language education, cultural research, local community service, international community service, and tourism. Based on this educational philosophy, the Graduate School has developed a curriculum that emphasizes proficiency in English, the true international language, while facilitating research and education into the contemporary international society in which Japan exists from a variety of standpoints, including communication studies; languages such as English, Chinese, and Japanese; British and American culture and literature; international exchange; the Eurasia region; and tourism. It also emphasizes hands-on learning in the field, and its offerings include courses that allow students to master living knowledge by experiencing language education, cultural exchange, community service, and other activities according to their own interests and motivations. In this way, it is distinguished by the ability of students to conduct research into international society from a sociocultural perspective while deepening their intercultural communication skills.
The Graduate School consists of a single major with practical curriculums in a Course in Language and Culture and a Course in Global Philanthropy. Students can take offerings from both courses, allowing the Graduate School to accommodate students with a variety of needs. Both curriculums are designed for ease of completion by university graduates, adults, and international students.
The Course in Language and Culture strives to endow students with specialized knowledge through an understanding of the mechanisms of global culture, knowledge of language and other cultures, and the study of advanced language communication.
The Course in Global Philanthropy trains specialized professionals who can contribute to global cultural exchange through participation in the following: theoretical research related to international development and cooperation and the tourism industry, implementation of specific solutions to a range of problems, community service, practical activities in areas such as tourism, and the mastery of specialized knowledge and skills.
The Major in Business was established in April 2005 to continue on the education / research objectives and philosophies that are the foundation of the Business Faculty while further evolving and deepening them to foster businesspeople and researchers with advanced knowledge, with international mindsets needed in contemporary business society plus the specialized knowledge and problem-solving abilities to cope with the rapidly changing times.
The Major in Business is comprised of 4 different series of courses, with a focus not only on acquiring business-related specialized knowledge, but also the ability to put such knowledge into practice. The major goals of these 4 series of course are to develop human resources, who: 1) have advanced knowledge and business acumen; 2) can make creative, visionary policy proposals; 3) can perform and clearly explain scientific analyses; and 4) can think systematically.
The Course of Accounting consists of offerings including financial accounting, administrative accounting, financial auditing, and tax law, allowing students to obtain far-ranging specialized knowledge in the field of accounting.
The Course of Strategic Management offers a curriculum in which students can conduct a specialized study of marketing, business administration, finance, and human resources development, all of which are essential components in the development of corporate strategy. Among its offerings are the Special Lecture on Manufacturing Strategy, a course that is unique to manufacturing-oriented Aichi Prefecture.
As Japanese companies increase overseas production and local industry works to boost exports, trade with Asia (China, NIEs, ASEAN, etc.) is growing rapidly. The Course of Asian Business focuses on offerings that invite students to study the Asian economy, particularly East Asia.
The Course of Strategic ICT offers courses that invite students to master specialized knowledge required of end-users in areas such as management information systems, information ethics, system development, risk management, and programming.
Copyright(C) Aichi Shukutoku University All Rights Reserved.
