Faculty Overview

Based on the philosophy, objectives, and educational goals of our faculty, we will award degrees to those who have acquired the following learning outcomes of knowledge and skills, generic abilities, and qualities and attitudes.
 
The specific policy for awarding degrees is to approve graduation and award a degree to students who have achieved a certain score in the rubric (a separately determined evaluation standard table) for the items listed below as learning outcomes for the course in question on the syllabus, who have earned a total of 124 or more credits in the designated term, and who have an average grade point average (GPA) of 2 or more for all courses earned. Therefore, students who do not meet the above conditions or who have earned fewer than 40 credits in their four years of enrollment will be ordered to withdraw.

1. Students will acquire basic liberal arts and specialized academic knowledge concerning human beings, society, and culture, and will be able to accurately understand, appreciate, and evaluate various phenomena.
2. Able to express oneself and communicate accurately and effectively using one's native language and a foreign language.
3. Able to think logically, obtain and process information in an appropriate manner, and make accurate judgments.
4. We respect cultural diversity and strive to respect the dignity of life and promote peace as global citizens.
5. Demonstrate leadership and a willingness to cooperate with others toward a humanistic society.
6. Ability to create new knowledge and expressions based on fundamental and specialized knowledge.
7. Understand the meaning of learning and strive for personal growth as an autonomous learner with goals in mind.

Faculty of Letters has organized its curriculum according to the following policies so that each student can fully acquire the knowledge and skills outlined in the diploma policy, generic abilities such as the ability to think, make judgments, and express themselves, as well as the qualities of a global citizen and the attitude of an autonomous learner, thereby enabling each student to realize their future dreams.
 
1. As the first part of the first-year education, Faculty of Letters' unique "First-Year Seminar" (common subject arrangement: compulsory) will be offered in the spring semester of the first year in a small-group exercise format, where students will acquire basic academic skills necessary for university studies, including logical thinking skills, and will be guided to design their own course of study for themselves, while looking broadly at society and looking ahead to their careers. Specifically, students will learn the meaning of university study, academic skills such as note-taking, information gathering methods, reading and writing, presentations, discussions, and report writing, and will also use portfolios to design their own careers. As the second part of the first-year education, "Humanities" (selective compulsory with the corresponding English track subject) will be offered, where students will understand and learn the philosophy of the department, and while overviewing the diverse academic fields of the department across the three areas of linguistics, humanities, and social sciences, they will understand that they share a common core or root in human studies, and will clarify the position of each specialized subject and encourage the direction of their own future studies. As the third part of the first-year education, ten introductory subjects are offered in academic fields across three areas of the faculty, which serve as a gateway to more specialized learning in the future.

2. In the spring semester of the second year, we offer the course "School of Faculty of Letters Learning and Life Design" (a required elective with the corresponding English track subject), which will enable students to further clarify the purpose of their studies and to acquire more specific life designs, including careers, and the orientation, knowledge, and skills needed to realize them.

3. In order to allow students to acquire basic liberal arts as well as advanced specialized academic knowledge, the Faculty offers the following 11 majors and 1 specialization: 1) English Culture, 2) International Japanese Studies, 3) Chinese and Asian Culture, 4) Russian and European Culture, 5) Philosophy and Thought Culture, 6) History and Social Culture, 7) Language and Culture, 8) Expression Culture, 9) Sociology and Anthropology, 10) Multicultural Coexistence and Peace Creation, 11) AKADEMIA, and 12) Social Welfare. Students select and study subjects in these specialized fields based on the course model indicated by each major or specialization, and once they have acquired the required number of credits, they will be certified as having completed the major or specialization.

4. To allow students to study as systematically as possible throughout their time at the university, the specialized subjects (electives) for each major and specialization are divided into three levels: "introductory," "basic," and "advanced," depending on the level of specialization. In addition to the "introductory" courses in the spring semester of the first year, many "basic" courses are offered so that students can be conscious of which major or specialization they will choose and decide on that direction from the second semester of their first year. In addition to these, "advanced" courses are offered in sequence from the second year onwards. In this way, in addition to the university-wide core program, students are able to acquire basic liberal arts in a wide range of fields, such as literature, philosophy, thought, history, language, society, and culture, as well as specialized academic knowledge that allows them to accurately understand, appreciate, and evaluate these phenomena.

5. Taking advantage of the tradition of language education in our faculty, from the spring semester of the first year, we offer many language courses not only in Japanese and English, but also in Chinese, Russian, etc., enabling students to acquire appropriate self-expression, rich communication skills, and intercultural understanding in the face of globalization.

6. From the spring semester of the third year, seminars (compulsory courses for the faculty) are offered in the majors and specializations students choose to study, allowing them to engage in more specialized study and research. When students take the seminars, they also register for the majors and specializations to which their seminars belong. Through the seminars over the next two years, students will acquire the ability to acquire and process information in an appropriate manner, which will enable them to make accurate judgments and furthermore, develop the ability to create new knowledge and expressions based on the basic and specialized knowledge they have acquired up to now.

7. In the fourth year, we offer a graduation research course (a compulsory subject for the undergraduate program) in which students utilize all of the academic skills, basic knowledge, specialized academic knowledge, and language skills they have acquired throughout their studies to write a graduation thesis or other work, allowing them to further hone these skills in the process.

8. The curriculum of our faculty is designed for students with advanced English proficiency, with the Soka AKADEMIA major, which allows students to graduate by taking classes in English only (English track). This allows students to acquire language skills, communication skills, and intercultural understanding that are more suited to globalization.

9. In our faculty, we incorporate a variety of active learning methods into our lecture courses as well as our seminar courses. In addition, from the perspective of making credits substantial, we assign learning assignments for each course that require students to secure an equivalent amount of time for learning outside of class. Through these learning activities, students are able to understand the meaning of their own learning and to aim for their own growth as autonomous learners.

10. In various courses offered, including the first-year "First-Year Seminar" and "Humanities," and the second-year "Learning in Faculty of Letters and Life Design," as well as "Introduction," courses are based on the philosophy and objectives of undergraduate education and actively incorporate active learning, such as panel-style classes by multiple faculty members, lectures by external Lecturer, and discussions. This allows students to respect the diversity of ways of thinking and cultures, to acquire an attitude of respecting the dignity of life and aiming for peace as global citizens, and to demonstrate leadership and an attitude of cooperation with others toward a humanistic society.

11. We have created a separate list of undergraduate courses (curriculum map) based on the above policy. This clearly shows how students can acquire the skills outlined in the diploma policy through which courses.

12. Regarding the grading of each course in this faculty, students who achieve a grade of 2 or higher on the rubric (list of evaluation criteria) described in the Diploma Policy will be granted credits for each course. Specifically, this will be done as follows:
 
For lecture courses, the instructor will make a comprehensive assessment based on regular exams, report exams, the submission and content of preparation and review assignments for each class, appropriate quizzes, the submission of other assignments, participation in discussions, and other original questionnaires to measure the student's learning achievement.

For practical courses, the instructor will make a comprehensive assessment based on the submission and content of preparation and review assignments for each class, the content of the presentation, participation in discussions, report submission status, and other original questionnaires used to measure the student's learning achievement.

- Graduation research will be guided in its creation in conjunction with specialized seminars, and projects that meet the separately specified format and length will be evaluated based on their content, taking into account the results of oral examinations by two faculty members.

Based on Founding Spirit of our university and the philosophy, purpose and educational goals of our faculty, Department of Human Studies Studies Faculty of Letters seeks excellent students from both within Japan and overseas to train individuals who have fully acquired the abilities and qualities stated in our diploma policy. Specifically, we are looking for students who have the following knowledge and skills, abilities such as thinking, judgment and expression, as well as the attitude and inclination.

1. A person who has acquired the basic knowledge, comprehension, thinking, writing, language, and mathematical abilities, etc., that are expected to be attained by the time of entering high school, through independent study.
2. A person who has the spirit to take on challenges and actively participate in various activities both inside and outside of school, such as qualification exams, various competitions, club activities, and volunteer activities in addition to studying, and who has the ability to achieve goals and produce certain results.
3. We are looking for people who are not simply knowledgeable, but who have a goal of problem-solving, the drive and initiative to thoroughly tackle a topic that interests them, and the ability to define problems and the creativity to do so.
4. A person who has a moral and ethical sense that respects the dignity of life and is peace-oriented, who actively seeks communication with others, and who seeks to accomplish things through cooperation while respecting the positions of others.
5. After enrolling in the Faculty, students will strive to hone the abilities and qualities listed in (1) to (4) above into more specialized and advanced ones that meet the diploma policy through lectures, seminars, practical training, and other courses covering more than 300 subjects in the Faculty, which has a wide range of academic fields and deep expertise, as well as through extracurricular learning.