Okayama University Curriculum Policy
In order to develop individuals who have mastered the abilities set out in the Policy for Graduation Certification and Degree Awarding (Degree Policy), Okayama University as a whole, organizes and implements curricula based on the following educational policies and principles.
Education implementation policy: to provide education that helps students develop the ability to continue to learn independently in order to implement sustainable societies.
Education principles: the following educational content is provided, from the perspective of proactive and interactive deep learning, with emphasis on what students have become able to do, rather than what has been taught.
- Bachelor’s Degree Courses
- Master’s Courses
- Doctoral Courses
- Professional Degree Courses
- Educational methods.etc
General Education
General education aims to develop general knowledge and skills, and provides practical activities for learning with other students, while maturing and creating together.
The curriculum provides the knowledge and skills necessary to enable interaction and collaboration with people whose ideas differ from their own.
Specialized Education
Specialized education provides students with opportunities to deepen their understanding of specialization by offering systematically designed curricula and helping students to integrate and create knowledge from different fields of expertise.
The curriculum provides students with knowledge and skills in different fields that enrich their thinking, as well as systematic and basic specialized knowledge and skills that build their own expertise, while learning from one another.
Language Education
Language education is provided to enable students to develop their English language competence required to live in a globalized world.
The university provides students with opportunities to study English and develop the integrated language skills of listening, reading, speaking and writing, as well as learn a second foreign language (international students have opportunities to learn Japanese) through subjects designed to promote cross-cultural understanding. In addition, it creates opportunities to learn languages not only in the regular curriculum but also as extracurricular education.
Master’s Courses
General Education
General education aims to develop general knowledge and skills, and provides practical activities for learning with other students, while maturing and creating together.
The curriculum provides students with the knowledge and skills necessary to examine their own issues from a variety of perspectives and to collaborate with people whose views may differ to solve those issues.
Specialized Education
Specialized education provides students with opportunities to deepen their understanding of specialization by offering systematically designed curricula and helping students to integrate and create knowledge from different fields of expertise.
In addition to the systematic knowledge and skills students have developed in their specialization, the curriculum also provides knowledge and skills gained by connecting and integrating the knowledge and skills of related fields.
Language Education
Language education is provided to enable students to develop their English language competence required to live in a globalized world.
In anticipation of multilingual research activities and activities in their field of practice, students are encouraged to make use of opportunities to present and interact, not only in Japanese but also in a variety of languages at academic conferences.
Doctoral Courses*(Integrated five-year doctoral programs)
General Education
General education aims to develop general knowledge and skills, and provides practical activities for learning with other students, while maturing and creating together.
The curriculum provides students with the knowledge and skills necessary to examine their own issues from various perspectives, apply those issues to the real world in collaboration with people who have different ideas, and lead to finding creative solutions to problems. Students also develop the skills necessary to explain solutions to problems in plain language.
Specialized Education
Specialized education provides students with opportunities to deepen their understanding of specialization by offering systematically designed curricula and helping students to integrate and create knowledge from different fields of expertise.
The curriculum provides students with the ability to create solutions to global issues by using the systematic knowledge and skills of their own specialization, along with the additional knowledge and skills they have developed
Language Education
Language education is provided to enable students to develop their English language competence required to live in a globalized world.
In anticipation of multilingual research activities and activities in their field of practice, students are encouraged to make use of opportunities to present and interact, not only in Japanese but also in a variety of languages at academic conferences.
*Integrated five-year doctoral programs will be closed due to the reorganization of Doctoral Courses in AY2023.
Professional Degree Courses
General Education
General education aims to develop general knowledge and skills, and provides practical activities for learning with other students, while maturing and creating together.
The curriculum provides students with the necessary knowledge and skills to examine issues rooted in the main specialized fields from a variety of perspectives and to collaborate with people whose views may differ to help them solve problems.
Specialized Education
Specialized education provides students with opportunities to deepen their understanding of specialization by offering systematically designed curricula and helping students to integrate and create knowledge from different fields of expertise.
The curriculum is designed to deepen and integrate students’ systematic knowledge and skills acquired in their fields of specialization.
Language Education
Language education is provided to enable students to develop their English language competence required to live in a globalized world.
In anticipation of multilingual research activities and activities in their field of practice, students are encouraged to make use of opportunities to present and interact, not only in Japanese but also in a variety of languages at academic conferences.
○Educational methods: the aforementioned educational content is provided in the following ways.
(1) Educational methods are used to help students proactively expand their potential.General education, specialized education, and language education are provided in ways that enable students to expand their potential by understanding others and learning from one another.
(2) An educational system is offered that takes full advantage of the unique features of the university.For all courses, an educational system is provided that enables students to, while respecting their own specialties, collaborate with others in different specialized fields to think, take action, and create something new, while learning from each other.
(3) Practical educational programs which are tailored to the development of the students are provided.From undergraduate to postgraduate, students are offered study abroad programs, internships, and practicums in real-world settings connected to their region and the world.
○Academic performance evaluation policy: the academic performance of each student is strictly evaluated.
Students’ learning outcomes and performance are evaluated based on clearly specified criteria and methods for each class subject. For graduate courses (excluding professional degree courses), criteria and methods for the examination of dissertations and tasks are clearly specified in advance, and the final review and examination of research outcomes are conducted based on those criteria and methods. With regard to doctoral dissertations, students are required to pass the final review and examination after receiving an interim evaluation. For the final review and examination of a doctoral dissertation, an examination committee, consisting of at least three members, is organized. (The committee members may include outside researchers if budgetary arrangements are made within the program.) When deemed necessary by the graduate school to which a student belongs, the student’s supervisor may be included as a member of the examination committee. The examination committee chair (chief referee) shall be selected from among the committee members. (If the student’s supervisor is included in the committee, the chair shall be selected from members other than the supervisor.)
○ Extracurricular education policy:
Students are provided with extracurricular activities to enable them to understand their personal development beyond classroom learning.