Master Programme
Mission
The goals of this graduate school is to (a) cultivate people who will be able to adapt to the arrival of a new knowledge-oriented society and take leadership roles in the international community and (b) contribute to the recovery and revitalisation of the economy.
By building on the School of Economics, which provides comprehensive and interdisciplinary education and research under a system comprising three departments (the Department of Economics, the Department of Business Management, and the Department of Social Environmental Design), this master's programme develops a more advanced contemporary education and research system and aims to cultivate people who are equipped with the practical problem-solving skills needed to tackle a diverse range of challenges.
Curriculum
This is a research-oriented graduate school that enhances the awareness of problems being faced in real-life social and corporate settings and strives to address those problems from an academic perspective. Various systems have been developed to support graduate students’ research.
1. Lectures given by experts active in their industries or government sectors
In addition to its full-time professors, the graduate school invites experts active in their industries or government sectors to give lectures.
2. Research guidance by multiple academic advisors
With society becoming internationalized and increasingly complex, many of the issues and research topics being studied and chosen by graduate students are likewise growing more complex and crossing the lines of different disciplines. To adapt to this changing reality, the graduate school assigns both a lead academic advisor and assistant academic advisor to each student. Students in the master’s programme have two advisors: one lead academic advisor and one assistant academic advisor. The graduate school has an educational system that enables its graduate students to conduct their own research independently while maintaining close communication with these instructors.
3. Weekday night and Saturday classes
In consideration of the study constraints of businesspeople with tight schedules, the graduate school holds classes and offers research guidance on weekday nights and on Saturdays (daytime and evenings).
4. A fully developed research guidance schedule
Students begin their research activities in their first year with support from multiple advisors and earn credit for research guidance (four credits each for the first and second year of the master’s program, for a total of eight credits). Under the standard schedule, students earn a master’s degree (in economics) in two years, but some students deemed to demonstrate particularly exceptional performance may complete the program in one year.
5. Long-term study program
Students who do not expect to be able to complete their master’s dissertations in two years due to employment or other circumstances may follow established procedures to apply for an extension of up to three years and paying tuition for only two years.
6. System adapts to job transfers experienced by adult students
If a job transfer or other work-related matters makes it difficult for a student to continue attending classes at the graduate school, the student may transfer to any of the 12 other national university graduate schools in Japan. Transferring students do not need to pay the entrance exam fee or admission fee.
7. Diverse dissertation instruction formats suited to the student’s research hours
To enable graduate students to maintain a balance between their working lives and student lives, some advisors are occasionally available to provide research guidance on weekends. Personalized guidance is given on a one-on-one basis, but some professors arrange joint seminars with multiple advisors or periodically hold research meetings with larger groups. These seminars and meetings promote interaction between graduate students and alumni or other guest speakers and provide a venue for students to develop their networks through their research activities.