Based on the spirit of Christianity and Humanism, this university upholds the educational spirit of “Men and Women for Others, with Others.” In order to realize this, the university emphasizes “internationalism” and has put into practice a range of pioneering initiatives. In addition to these achievements, due to recent globalization, the university is being compelled to create new strategies so as to lead Japan’s universities in internationalization. One of these strategies is to provide an internationally-competitive educational program in English in the field of environmental science and engineering. This area is one of Japan’s strengths and is currently in high demand worldwide. We think, in turn, it entices promising students from abroad to come and study at this university.

As part of our efforts to achieve this goal, preparation is well underway for setting up a course taught in English at the Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies. Similar to environmental science and engineering, this course will give consideration to the social aspects of environmental problems and their relationship with development and poverty; this is the program that develops human resource personnel who can contribute directly to solving the problems currently facing the international community. With a strong sense of purpose, the aim of this course will be to integrate knowledge from the social sciences and natural sciences, and to develop human resource who can tackle environmental problems.

The curriculum will mainly consist of subjects administered in the Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies; however, from the the perspectives of the integration of humanities, sciences, and internationalism, we intend to collaborate with the Graduate School of Science and Technology and the Graduate School of Global Studies so as to create a curriculum that is interdisciplinary in nature.

Other than compulsory subjects in I and II (4 credits each), the curriculum will comprise of nine humanities-related optional subjects from the Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies (Environmental Economics, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Environmental Management, Environmental Education, etc.) and 5 science-based optional subjects (Environmental Engineering, Energy and the Environment, Chemicals and the Environment, Environmental Remote Sensing. and Oceans and the Environment).

The Graduate School of Global Studies already provides a range of subjects taught in English. Among these, subjects relating to the environment and development will form optional subjects for this course. More specifically, this is scheduled to include The Environment and Development of Developing Nations, Environmental Policy, Development and Civic Society, Global Resources and The Environment, and Development 1 and 2. Also, overseas classes held in collaboration with affiliated universities in Asia as part of the three-year plan of The Graduate School of Global Studies will also be included in this course as an optional subject.

This course is scheduled to start enrolment from September 2011.

Details of the curriculum and other relevant information will be posted on this website as and when they have been defined.