Results for Certified Evaluation and Accreditation
for Professional Graduate Business School

Graduate Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies

Basic Information of the Institution
Ownership: Private

Location: Niigata, Japan

Accreditation Status
Year of the Review: 2020
Accreditation Status: accredited （Accreditation Period: April.1.2021 – March.31.2026）

Graduate Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies

Certified Evaluation and Accreditation Results
for Graduate Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies

The primary mission of the Graduate Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies
Entrepreneurial Program is to contribute to the mutual development of the Japanese andglobal economies by developing human resources that will create new business either
individually or within an organization, respond to the needs of the local society, andcontribute to the global society. Specifically, the program places an emphasis on
providing education that cultivates attributes capable of starting a business and creating
new business inside an organization (entrepreneurship), developing the humanresources that will act as a networking hub connecting Niigata to the world, revitalizing
the surrounding Niigata region, and working to create “Active Entrepreneurs” that are
intimately connected to the Niigata region.
Niigata City is actively developing support for start-ups and job creation andexpansion while creating bases that strengthen international competitiveness throughindustry-academia-government collaborations, so the program is socially significant
as a business professional graduate school that aims to allow citizens to earn their MBA
while working as well as an education facility responsible for educating entrepreneurs
who can contribute to regional development that responds to the needs of the region.
The program aims to achieve its three objectives of 1) gaining international recognitionas Japan’s leading professional school for entrepreneurs, 2) creating a global network
based in Niigata through practical entrepreneurship education and support, and 3)
contributing to the development of the regional and global economies so that theschool can achieve the goal of being the “No. 1 Professional School for EntrepreneurialDesign” as detailed in the 2019 “Future and Mid-term Plan” for the target status of
the University in 2029.
In order to achieve this, the University launched a six-point long-term corepolicy that includes the establishment of a unique educational method and educational
quality assurance program as well as cooperative undertakings with local universities
and businesses to contribute practical education and research. Its distinct features areambitious initiatives for the development of the local and global economies by creatingexchange agreements with numerous Asian and European universities along withactive recruitment of exceptional exchange students from abroad. In order to foster
entrepreneurship, freshmen in the curriculum take Business Plan Creation as acompulsory subject to actively learn the basic knowledge and skills needed to create a1

Graduate Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies

business plan and then gradually increase their understanding of how to create
effective business plans as the program progresses. Additional distinctive features are
the EIT (Entrepreneurship Intensity Track) system where the faculty team supports
students looking to start a business either while enrolled or immediately after
graduating and practical entrepreneurship support provided by the Entrepreneurship
Design School , which provides practical support through an outside entrepreneur
network comprised primarily of alumni.
However, after receiving the results of the previous Certified Evaluation andAccreditation for Professional Graduate Business School, the program must address
the following issues as it improves. For example, because the age distribution of fulltime faculty shows an increase in faculty over 50 since the last evaluation, werecommend continuous recruitment efforts and adding younger faculty as well as
having faculty organized in a way that accounts for age distribution.
The current evaluation also uncovered the following issues.
Firstly, while the long-term core policy, mid-term action plan, and milestones
to achieve the 10-year goal of becoming the “No. 1 Professional School forEntrepreneurial Design” have been established in detail, the path to achieve this goal
is abstract and so lacks any practical guarantees. The progress of milestones and themid-term action plan to date should be examined after re-clarifying the University's
desired position.
Second, while certain criteria involving education were established in theassessment of academic achievement, biased evaluations appeared in a handful ofcourses and so appropriate criteria must be employed to ensure rigorous assessmentsof academic achievement, including reviews to establish the degree of success for eachcourse. Surveys are distributed to gauge educational outcomes, but they are establishedand implemented by individual committees. It would be advisable to have themeasurement method for each survey’s learning outcomes systemized and reviewed
as a whole, including examinations into benchmarks.
Third, there are no full-time faculty in core business professional graduate
school courses like Business Management and Human Resource Management and thisshould be improved.
Fourth, while confidentiality agreements based on the program’s Information
Treatment Regulations
involving the handling of corporate data used in creating
business plans is mandatory for all faculty and students, the same policies apply toalumni at all times and so regulations must account for this when actively engaging in
the numerous activities involved in developing entrepreneurship.
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Graduate Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies

These issues should be addressed and we hope that the University will further
evolve their education focused on fostering their trademark “Active Entrepreneurs”.
And because many of the initiatives that began in 2019 require mid- and long-term
timelines to verify actual results, we hope that such initiatives will be actively
implemented in the future while the program achieves steady results.

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