僞僀僩儖


Outline of the Education Scheme丂

Framework of the Scheme:
乪Initiative for Attractive Education in Graduate Schools乫

乪Initiative for Attractive Education in Graduate Schools乫 is an educational scheme promoted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of the Government of Japan. The scheme offers supports to graduate schools and their promising students who wish to design their future careers as creative young researchers and to meet the new requirements emerging on the cutting edge of contemporary society. With the selective support of the ministry, the scheme aims to bring about substantial improvement for the systematic development of the curriculums in graduate schools, which take innovative and serious educational efforts to educate future-researchers.

Nara Women乫s University乫s proposal entitled 乪Education and Training of Female Researchers Acting to Formulate Objectives and Discover Solutions in Human Life and Environment乫 has qualified for such selective support and was implemented in April 2005.



Outline of Our University乫s Program for the Scheme

General Purpose of Our Program

In the course of the program, the graduate students are expected to become self-reliant, independent female researchers full of creative talent, who dedicate themselves to enriching human life and environment as well as to leading our society towards a better quality of life. To accomplish this end, our program requires the graduate students to identify, through intensive fieldwork in their living environments, themes for study, and thence derive solutions, through their own efforts. Our program is designed to encourage graduate students to submit their doctoral dissertations and to obtain Ph.-D.s within the standard period for an education program.

 

Departments participating in the Program

亂Master乫s Course亃
Department of International Studies for History, Sociology and Geography
Department of Human Behavioral Sciences
Department of Human Environment
Department of Culture and Humanities
Department of Residential Environment and Design

 

亂Doctoral Course亃
School of Social Life and Human Environment


Characteristics and Contents of Our Program

  1. Coursework based on enhanced curriculum to prepare for the master乫s thesis and doctoral dissertation.


    • The enhanced curriculum now used for both the Master乫s and Doctoral course is composed of five subject groups.

    • Three of the five subject groups are the 亂Basic special group亃, the 亂Applied special group亃 and the 亂Master乫s thesis/Doctoral dissertation亃, which are subdivisions of the existing 亂Special subjects group亃. Meanwhile the other two groups, the 亂Research management group亃 and the 亂Career development group亃, were newly-established to support those who intend to become researchers. With the introduction of such subdivision among the five subject groups, the program aims to offer the students a clear understanding of the whole structure of their education as well as helping the students learn the necessary subjects systematically.

    • The establishment of the 亂Research management group亃aims to develop a series of abilities essentially important for identifying themes, solutions, and tasks in the course of research. The 亂Career development group亃will help the students acquire the practical skills and knowledge.



    • Two types of credit acquisition patterns are available in the Master乫s course based on students乫 research themes. One is the 乪specialized pattern乫, suitable for the pursuit of studies in a particular academic field. The other is the 乪interdisciplinary pattern乫, helpful for broadening a student乫s academic field of vision.

  2. Educational process prepared



    • In the course of both the Master乫s course and the Doctoral course, graduate students can obtain academic advice on their research from various points of view by utilizing the 乪Multiple Supervisors System乫, so as to produce sound results.

    • The 乪Monitoring System乫 and the 乪Memorandum for Doctoral Dissertation Submission乫 provided in the doctoral course function as a conscious controlling method for the progress of both the research and the doctoral dissertation, by the doctoral candidate and her supervisors.

  3. Improvement upon support conditions for research and education including the introduction of assistance for activities initiated by graduate students.

    • A new support program called 乪Assistance for Activities Initiated by Graduate Students乫 supports graduate student乫s creative and motivated research activities.

    • The program will more efficiently and extensively apply existing support, such as Teaching Assistant and Research Assistant Programs.