| Message from the Dean |
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The Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences was originally established in 1993 as an independent three-year doctor's course of study. During its more than ten years of existence, the significance of the school changed in line with changes of the needs of society toward it. Among others, the economic slump following the collapse of the bubble economy has created an acute need for the reform or conclusion of the post-war regime that contributed to the formation of the postwar socio-economic structure. Though we are in the midst of social transformation, the traditional missions of universities, "succession of knowledge", "creation of knowledge", and "dissemination of knowledge", still remain unchanged. As an effort to balance the university's mission with socio-economic transformation, we restructured our educational organization to respond to the needs of society. In fiscal 2006, to achieve the goal of nurturing professionals able to meet the needs and expectations of local communities, we restructured and expanded the master's course program in our Management and Public Policy Sciences, and established "Public Policy Sciences" and "Management Sciences in Organization" (Business School). In line with this organizational reform, the name of the institution has been changed to the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences. This integrated institution, which has both the master's and doctor's courses, aims to investigate various academic problems that emerge from the contemporary society, as well as to respond to the diverse academic interests of our students, while seeking to develop talented personnel capable of contributing to society. Our integrated five-year course of study primarily accepts students who aspire to become academics or pursue a career in research. Specifically, we enroll and give academic guidance to students who seek to conduct professional studies not only in such traditional academic fields as literature, law and economics but also in interdisciplinary or integrated fields. Meanwhile, for students wishing only to complete the master's course, we offer an education system under which students can complete their research within two years. For example, the Management Sciences in Organization, which provides a practical MBA education, seeks to develop personnel capable of becoming leaders of corporate and other organizations as well as professionals such as CPAs, while the Public Policy Sciences aims to develop and upgrade the skills of workers in central and local governments and other organizations. Our graduate school features a unique educational and guidance system, under which supervisors work in teams based on the study field of each student. Another feature is the use of an e-learning system, which will be introduced in the Management Sciences in Organization with a trial run of a distance learning course this year. It is designed for students who live faraway from the school, directly providing them with interactive lectures at home (or their workplace) using a computer network. We take pride in the high research talents and rich teaching experience of our faculty as well as our wealth of information and resources on "knowledge." We hope that a lot of people will take an interest and join our programs. The faculty members are confident that "we will be able to fully meet your expectations."
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