Aspires to Train These Types of People

Kogakuin University Aspires to Train These Types of People

President
Kogakuin University
 
At Kogakuin University, we help people develop the ability to grow throughout their lives in any kind of environment. We train students in many facets of their daily studies and lives in line with our university’s educational and research goals.

To that end, we encourage our students to adhere to the R-PDCA cycle, a logical thought process involving the following steps: research, plan, do, check, and act. More specifically, this is the process of setting goals on the basis of active and independent research, preparing plans and steadily implementing those plans to attain the goals set, objectively evaluating and verifying outcomes, striving for improvements, and starting toward a new stage.

We have outlined the goal of acquiring the abilities listed below together with the ability to use science and technology as our means of developing people that can demonstrate leadership in a variety of fields.

I would like wider society to know that our graduates will use the thought process and abilities they acquire to work in harmony with diverse types of people and will contribute both directly and indirectly to the advancement of science and technology from global perspectives.
 
 

Knowledge and understanding

Acquiring basic expertise

  1. Students acquire basic math, natural sciences and information technology expertise
  2. Students acquire basic knowledge and education related to people, society and culture

Acquiring expertise in specialized fields

Students acquire expertise in specialized fields and specialized skills in their chosen faculty/school and department

Thinking and judgment/skills and expression

Acquiring general purpose problem-solving abilities

  1. Defining issues to be solved
    Able to independently gather and analyze data, selecting issues from among problems that need to be solved in contemporary society and appropriately defining the issues
  2. Logical considerations
    Have the requisite problem-solving abilities—including logical thinking skills and analytical skills—and the ability to propose methods for resolving issues
  3. Japanese-language capabilities (written expression, verbal communication, and presentation skills)
    Able to use Japanese to summarize their thinking logically and express it appropriately
  4. English-language communication skills
    Able to use English for basic communication in intercultural contexts
  5. R-PDCA cycle
    i. Able to define goals and plan
     Able to define goals in phases in their studies and student life, on the basis of their hopes and future prospects
     Able to conduct sufficient research, as well as respect objective opinions, when setting goals
     Able to obtain their own understanding of their studies and the content of those studies, along with their own proficiency, and to propose plans to achieve goals
     Able to investigate the content of their studies in advance and to precisely come to grips with points that need to be understood and problems that should be solved
    ii. Able to engage in studies and activities
     Able to increase their expertise and skills by pacing themselves and studying continuously
     Understand the skills that each faculty/school and department specifically specifies as mandatory requirements and study assertively
     Able to explain the outcomes of their studies and the efforts in which they are engaged to other people in easily understood and accurate ways
     Able to interact with respect and understanding for others after acquiring a richness of spirit through their student lives
    iii. Able to monitor and evaluate their status
     Able to review their goals and objectively monitor and evaluate whether their progress is in line with plans
     Able to comprehensively monitor and evaluate how well they understand the content of their studies through interaction with faculty members
    iv. Able to make enhancements and improvements
     Able to calmly review the studies and activities in which they are engaged, and identify new problems and areas that are not going according to plan
     Able to examine the appropriateness of initial goals and plans, and incorporate the result of such examinations into new plans and even higher goals

Interest, enthusiasm and attitude

Acquiring an ethical mindset and social skills

  1. Independent studies
    Able to monitor themselves and study continuously to increase their expertise and skills
  2. Teamwork
    Possess a richness of spirit, and able to contribute to the team's success through mutual understanding and respect for others
  3. Social understanding and career concept
    Have a multifaceted understanding of the relationship between human society and science and technology, and able to understand the significance and roles of learning and working
    Able to formulate their own values related to work and occupations leading to social and professional autonomy through an understanding of society and themselves
  4. Engineering-related ethics
    Able to fulfill their obligations to society with a strong sense of ethics based on a firm understanding of both the influences and effects that engineers have on society and the responsibilities engineers have toward society

Knowledge and understanding/thinking and judgment/skills and expression

Acquiring creative skills

Able to apply the above expertise and skills to specific problems, offering proposals for solving problems within real-world constraints

Specifically, students are able to use their information literacy, creative thinking and problem-solving skills to create original topics and propose and verify original solutions


Some may say that we should not overemphasize the R-PDCA cycle if we are to survive difficult times in an uncertain future. However, I believe the experience of developing self-discipline and the ability to change themselves through practicing the R-PDCA cycle during the pivotal four-year university period will definitely prove useful when the students pursue further careers in society.

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