Educational Characteristics

01.07.2016 Update

Highly specialized education to develop women leaders

Ochanomizu University‘s undergraduate courses offer highly specialized education in small class sizes. We have in place a free learning environment that protects the individual dignity and rights of women so as to develop women capable of contributing to the realization of a gender-equal society and to the empowerment of women around the world.

Advanced graduate research closely linked to undergraduate courses

Graduate research promotes a variety of projects, the outcomes of which are deeply reflected in undergraduate courses. We pursue evolutions in the university‘s curricula through their link to cutting-edge research in the graduate school.

Promotion of 21st century liberal arts education integrating the humanities and sciences

The globalization of society in the 21st century is giving rise to concurrent trends in knowledge and technology: specialization and diversification. That is, the knowledge that students acquire must be specialized or it will be useless, and at the same time it must be communicable to people with different national and cultural backgrounds.
In the past, the university offered liberal arts as a preliminary step to specialized education. Whereas at present, we are required to foster in students communication and negotiation skills, a cross-disciplinary viewpoint, and the ability to make judgments in response to change so as to support and enable full utilization of highly specialized education.
Ochanomizu University‘s 21st century liberal arts education aims to build on the foundation of knowledge itself, or the general (liberal) skills (arts) that students can use throughout their lifetime.

Launch of a multiple program elective course system in 2011

The new system enables students to freely combine “core programs,” “specialty programs,” “subprograms,” and “interdisciplinary programs” so as to acquire, in addition to the in-depth knowledge required of them in the past, the knowledge and skills suited to their needs.