Long-Term Strategy

Undergraduate Education

Build the foundation for a fulfilling and meaningful life through contribution to the local community and global society.

Monitoring and Evaluating Learning Outcomes during enrollment

Educational Management Based on Three Policies For the achievement of outcomes from learning during enrollment, the university will integrate and strictly operate educational management based on our three policies (DP, CP, and AP).

Verify Long-Term Educational Outcomes

Verification of Educational Outcomes That Will Lead to Fulfilling and Meaningful Lives In addition to the achievement of outcomes from learning during enrollment, we will make efforts to perform comprehensive verification of educational outcomes at three stages/viewpoints, including the student's decisions on employment and their path for advancement at the stage of graduation and if they are leading "fulfilling and meaningful lives" after graduation. When verification is performed, the indicators will be developed and set up, and the outcomes will be visualized.

Reform the Basic Curriculum Structure

Establishing Foundational Education to Acquire "Kwansei Competencies" It has been determined that all Kwansei Gakuin students acquire "Kwansei Competencies," or the knowledge, skills, and qualities that they will commonly acquire at the stage of graduation, regardless of department. So that our students can acquire these competencies, we are considering a system that will educate all of our students in foundational subjects such as Christianity, study skills, language, double challenges※, as well as mathematical and data science.
※Original education system which students challenge go abroad or “hands-on learning” (Practical learning in society) in addition to study undergraduate departments’ learning.

Consider Flexible Degree Programs

Considering a System to Develop Human Resources Who Are Adapted to Society 5.0 In our society 20 years from now, we expect there to be significant changes in the structure of industry and the demand for human resources due to the development of AI and population decline. For that reason, we are considering a system that will allow us to flexibly reform our degree programs through the combination and reorganization of existing professional fields, as well as the establishment of new fields and other such methods.

Reorganize Educational Fields

Reorganization of the School of Science and Technology We will reorganize educational fields in response to changes in society and industry, and the demand for human resources. In the event that we establish new fields, we will maintain or reduce the number of students for the entire university through a basic rule of rearrangement. We will particularly make efforts to reorganize fields as soon as possible for the School of Science and Technology, due to its rapid increase in scale and other similar matters.

Promote Globalization

Striving to be a "Top Global University" Up to International Standards As globalization advances, there will be a need for human resources who can actively participate in the world, so we will promote our university's greatest feature, internationalization, throughout our university. We are moving towards dispatching 2,500 people per year to partner universities※ and accepting 1,500 people per year as goals in the Super Global University Creation Support Project (SGU; known as a "Top Global University" in English) by FY2023. After that, we will achieve a truly global educational environment by expanding international programs of higher quality (sending/receiving/integrating study abroad students).
※Approximately one in two graduates experience studying abroad during enrollment.

Reinforcing Cooperation with the UN

Producing UN Staff and Promoting SDGs Our university has constructed a variety of educational programs in cooperation with the UN and international organizations, including "The Graduate Course in UN and Foreign Affairs Studies" as well as the "UN Youth Volunteer" program. We will further strengthen our cooperation with the UN to promote SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) in areas such as global warming, poverty, and inequality to produce human resources that will challenge issues for the world and mankind in areas that are common across the world.

Promote Extracurricular Education

Further promotion of educational management based on admissions policies We will establish admissions policies related to “Fulfilling and Meaningful Lives” after graduation and “High-Quality Employment” at the stage of graduation, and will collect and analyze data on examinees to attract outstanding students with diverse backgrounds.

Improve the Educational Ability of Individual Faculty members and Faculty Organizations

Significantly Improving the ST Ratio and Strictly Operating Educational Management We will significantly improve our ST ratio※, a fundamental requirement for improving the quality of our education. Also, one of our challenges is to promote educational management based on our three policies in order to improve educational abilities on a systematic scale. We will first be making efforts to refine our syllabi and make a “cap system” (setting a maximum number of credits) a reality.
※The number of students per faculty

ICT-Based Educational and Learning Support

Utilizing ICT and AI to Support Learning and Students We will take full advantage of ICT and AI and use online education and other tools to produce more effective outcomes in the education of our students. We will also share a variety of student data between each department to provide comprehensive and optimal support for the lifestyles of our students.

Promote Face-to-Face Communication

Sensitivity Training Via On-Campus Exchanges and Experiences With the development of ICT in this day and age, work to raising the educational value of direct communication and a variety of experiences on campus. We will employ to prioritize deeper exchanges between students, teachers as well as their friends, and will also make efforts to revitalize seminars that will be mutually stimulating.

Enhance Learning Support

Responding to Diverse Needs through the Writing Center We plan to enhance learning support outside of our courses (by establishing a writing center, etc.) to respond to the various individual needs of students.

Enhance Student Life Support

Redesigning Scholarships／Transitioning to All Mixed-Residence Dormitories We will redesign current scholarships system with National policy trends (tuition-free system and so on).
Our dormitories, including existing buildings, will be made into mixed residences that house both Japanese and international students, in order to advance international understanding through ducation by way of communal living.

Guarantee of Diversity and Academic Ability at the Acceptance Stage

Further promotion of educational management based on admissions policies We will establish admissions policies related to “Fulfilling and Meaningful Lives” after graduation and “High-Quality Employment” at the stage of graduation, and will collect and analyze data on examinees to attract outstanding students with diverse backgrounds.

Graduate Education

Educate researchers and exceptional professionals who can devote effort to society’s demands.

Educating researchers

Establishing a System for New Fixed-Term Associate Professors We will set up a new system to hire individuals who have completed doctorates as fixed-term associate professors at our university, in order to promote the production of researchers. Notably, we will guarantee employment for those who have been chosen as Young Scientists for the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science at the time of their selection, and we will organize our environment to allow them to focus on postgraduate research.

Enhance Science Research Labs

Aiming for a Graduate School of Science and Technology Advancement Rate of 60%

Cultivate exceptional professionals

Establishing Doctoral Programs in the Humanities and Social Sciences by Getting In Tune with Industry As new efforts for graduate programs in the humanities, we will work to cultivate "exceptional professionals" of both high skill and quality and can fuse expert knowledge and technical skills to produce results with linking industry.

Comprehensive and Integrated Education

Secure Kwansei Gakuin’s ideal as a comprehensive integrated educational institution through sharing the spirit of foundation.

Distinctive Integrated Education

Achieving Advanced Learning by Connecting Our Senior High School and University Kwansei Gakuin provides a continuous education for up to 16 years, from elementary school to university. We will consider policies to increase the ratio of students who continue their education within our school, who can do our founding spirit through practical action. Additionally, we will have our senior high schools work in conjunction with the university to implement advanced learning programs at the university. We will establish consistent education with features that include broadening students' horizons at an early stage in the first year (for example, through study abroad) after their admission into university.

Promote Globalization

Taking Globalization to a Level of Excellence for the Entire School Kwansei Gakuin Senior High School and the Senri International School of Kwansei Gakuin have also been designated as Super Global High Schools (SGHs) by MEXT, and have engaged in the nurturing of global leaders, in close collaboration with the university. More than 35 nationalities are represented among the students and teachers on the campus of the Senri and Osaka International Schools of Kwansei Gakuin. These schools are creating an international environment through distinctive learning and exchange programs, such as sharing classes delivered in English. The university and each school will make efforts to coordinate and collaborate in order to advance the unique international qualities of Kwansei Gakuin to an outstanding level.

Research

Create world-class research in a competitive environment.

Revitalize individual research

Distributing Funds, Strengthening Support, and Environmental Improvement in Response to Research Outcomes Each lecturer will work to conduct advanced research, and raise the quality of research for the entire university, by creating knowledge and contributing to society. We will establish two new principles to accomplish this. First, we will revise our doctrine of equality and introduce a doctrine of competitiveness. As a portion of our funds for current research costs, we will consider prioritizing the allocation of funds for young lecturers, lecturers who are pursuing external funding, lecturers who are advancing joint research with international researchers, and lecturers who have a proven record of results. The other new principle is to strengthen support and improve environments for lecturers who have been lauded for their research. In addition to supporting applications for grants-in-aid for scientific research, we will advance support according to the needs of our lecturers, including reducing work processing, relieving lecturers of course-related duties, and securing research time and locations.

Establish a research brand

Strengthening Support to Create World-Class Research We will organically connect related highly evaluated research, plan to advance towards large projects in order to obtain external funding, and create world-class research. To that end, we will hire URAs (University Research Administrators) to handle work such as the collection of information, strategy review, support for subsidies applications and business negotiations.

Industry-Government-Academia Collaboration

Enhance the Kwansei Gakuin brand value in top-notch education and research through strengthening links with the industry and government.

Link to Reinforcing Cooperation with the UN

Link to Cultivate exceptional professionals

Promote the Innovation of the Kobe Sanda Campus

Creating a Community that Brings People Together, Through the Formation of a Base for Industry-Government-Academia Collaboration The Kobe-Sanda Campus (KSC) will combine the “Knowledge and Technology Creation” of the School of Science and Technology with the “Value Creation” of the School of Policy Studies, to become a hub for bringing innovation to society. By advancing industry-government-academia collaboration, it will aim to “create a community” where young people, focusing on the students of this university, can gather in cooperation with local municipalities, the national government, research institutes, corporations, and entrepreneurs.

Internationalization

Evolve Kwansei Gakuin’s traditions of internationalization to a level of excellence.

Link to Promote Globalization

Link to Reinforcing Cooperation with the UN

Link to Revitalize individual research

School Management

Establish a comprehensive management system through governance reform.

Actively Invest and Establish a Solid Financial Foundation

Two Billion Yen in New Projects and a Difference of 6% Between Operating Income and Expenditure As the framework for the fiscal policy in the Medium-Term Comprehensive Management Plan (2018-2027), we have listed target values for the resources (increased revenue/reduced expenditure) that will be required to invest in new policies while also securing the soundness and safety of our fiscal policies a decade from now. These figures are provisional, and will regularly need to be reviewed after taking the overall situation into account.

• Running expenses (expenses and labor costs) for new projects in the Medium-Term Comprehensive Management Plan will be 200 million yen per year (2billion yen in FY2027). The total cost of facilities construction will be 40 billion yen.
• There are two indicators that are most important for our finances.
  Flow is the difference between operating income and expenditure (formerly known as the return income and expenditure difference rate), and our provisional target is 6% (this will recover to 8% by 2039).
  Stock is the real expenditure surplus rate※ and by 2027, it will be under 50%.
• In order to achieve the above, we will need to achieve an additional 2.4 billion yen in policy-based annual income and a 500 million yen reduction in annual expenditure by FY2027. If we are unable to specifically predict an increase in income and a decrease in expenditure of a certain amount by the fifth year of our plan, we will then have to stop new projects.
  ※The real expenditure surplus rate＝（Overtime amount of carried forward consumption over the following year＋Borrowing Balance）÷Business activity income×100

Secure Funding for New Projects

Increasing Revenue through Tuition Revision and Reducing Spending by Phasing Out Existing Projects Securing financial resources is the most important issue in achieving our vision and strategies. For measures to increase our income, in addition to increasing student tuition fees, subsidies, donations, asset management revenue, and business revenue. In addition, we will consider policies to reduce expenditure, including the phasing out of existing projects. In FY2018, we will establish a Central Committee of Financial and Business Reform.

Student scale

Maintaining or Reducing the Size of the Student Population and Maintaining or Increasing the Scale of Our Finances We will maintain or reduce the size of the student population in the undergraduate programs overall to keep the decline of academic standards at a minimum, and will maintain or expand the scale of the university’s finances by revising tuition fees and other means. Through these kinds of integrated strategies, we will raise the quality of the education we offer and strengthen our competitiveness.

(Establish Personnel Policies)

<Faculty members> Establishing a Comprehensive Faculty Personnel Plan For the university as a whole, we will establish a faculty personnel plan that comprehensively considers the organization of faculty personnel, age distribution, constants, ST ratio, labor costs, and other factors. Also, we will consider items such as expanding the quota of human personnel for the entire school, promoting FD and SD, improving the quality of research, reducing administrative work, emphasizing educational achievements when hiring, and reforming our evaluation system. <Staff> Thoroughly Pursuing the Improvement of Staff Performance We will enhance the capabilities of our staff members though skill development, in order to improve the quality of our education, research, and management. We will increase our ability to perform as an organization by demonstrating the maximum potential of our staff in a competitive environment. As themes, we are considering items such as skill development, planning and strategy formulation, redefining work duties, improving productivity, reorganizing administrative structures, and rebuilding our personnel systems.

Facility Construction and Equipment Servicing Plan

Placing Priority on Improving Amenities for the Nishinomiya Uegahara Campus On the Nishinomiya Uegahara Campus, to increasing safety insofar as student mobility, it will consolidate various student services that are currently spread out to improve convenience, and also improve amenities by enhancing our cafeteria and other facilities.

Construct an Innovative Information Environment

Establishing Strategies and Plans by Setting Up a Central Committee of IT Utilization Strategy In response to the developments of the digital revolution, we will make use of ICT and AI to promote the comprehensive and innovative utilization of IT to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of our education, research, and management. In FY2018, we will establish a Central Committee of IT Utilization Strategy to review and establish long-term strategies related to IT utilization for the entire school and IT utilization plans, including reviews of our organizational structure.

Promote Evidence-Based Management

Building Comprehensive IR Capabilities We will collect, store, and integrate education and research data as well as data for management resources such as finances and personnel. Through the analysis and visualization of this data, we will construct comprehensive IR (Institutional Research) functions to aid us in making management decisions, such as the support of policy planning and evaluation. We will promote evidence-based management.

Integrate Two PDCA

Establishing Internal Quality Assurance with Our Medium-Term Comprehensive Management Plan Because Kwansei Gakuin has a Medium-Term Plan (including SGU) and two PDCA cycles that consist of self-inspections and evaluations (conducted by each school), they will be integrated into the Medium-Term Comprehensive Management Plan to increase efficiency. We will establish "Internal Quality Assurance" through the formulation of the same plan.

Coordinate with Alumni

Building the Foundation for an Alumni Network We will provide support so that our alumni will embody "Mastery for Service" throughout their lives. To that end, we will build a platform in coordination with the alumni association to directly connect and communicate with over 200,000 alumni.

Promoting SDGs

Establishment of the Headquarters for Promoting SDGs We will establish a Headquarters for Promoting SDGs to comprehensively and effectively promote the implementation of policies that will contribute to the achievement of the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) and the enhancement of branding by applying such initiatives, through close coordination of divisions for education, research, and management within the university.

Digital Transformation

Improve the quality of Education and Research using digital technology, and transform operations and services

Link to Improve the Educational Ability of Individual Faculty members and Faculty Organizations
Link to ICT-Based Educational and Learning Support
Link to Enhance Learning Support

Link to Construct an Innovative Information Environment
Link to Promote Evidence-Based Management