Results for Certified Evaluation and Accreditation
for Professional Graduate Business School

Graduate School of Project Design, Course of Project Design

Basic Information of the Institution
Ownership: Private

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Accreditation Status
Year of the Review: 2021
Accreditation Status: accredited （Accreditation Period: April.1.2022– March.31.2027）

Graduate School of Project Design, Course of Project Design

Certified Evaluation and Accreditation Results
for Graduate School of Project Design, Course of Project Design

The Graduate School of Project Design, Course of Project Design states as its goal “todevelop human resources with expertise in the field of business management, especiallyproject design” in response to the social demand for “promising individuals who canpioneer new paths for society, have the strong will and intelligence needed to create aprosperous future, and possess outstanding leadership and realizing skills.” In order toachieve this goal, the Course has formulated a medium-term plan for 2020–2023 basedon the school corporation’s medium-term plan. The plan clearly expresses the Course’sintention to focus efforts on the following three areas: improvement of education andresearch, nationwide adoption of project design, and establishment of a doctoralprogram. Aiming to improve education and research in line with the plan, the Course
has revised its rules and three policies (degree award policy (diploma policy),curriculum design and implementation policy (curriculum policy), admission policy)
and introduced a new curriculum. In response to the previous Certified Evaluation andAccreditation for Professional Graduate Business School by the JUAA in 2016 thatpointed out the need for “Project Design Studies,” a unique concept developed by theCourse, to be defined and established, the Course has launched a journal for project
design-related research and created opportunities for full-time teaching staff to present
their research achievements, for example.
The Course engages in the development of human resources specializing inbusiness management, especially in the field of project design, in response to social
demand, which is a distinctive feature. It has developed an educational program thatallows students to acquire the knowledge and skills needed in the project design cycle
leading from conception to plan design, and that confers a Master of Project Design(MPD) degree upon students. Placing importance on the Project Design Plan thatstudents create as a culmination of their studies, the Course has developed a system thatallows students to get research guidance from multiple perspectives by participating ina main seminar and sub seminar. However, in spite of the educational program’sorientation toward design, the opportunities for students to actually implement orcommercialize their designs during enrollment are limited. Therefore, the JUAA hopes
the Course develops an educational program that involves design implementation.
The JUAA identified a number of issues with the Course that require addressing.
The issues can roughly be divided into the following three types:1Graduate School of Project Design, Course of Project DesignFirst, although the Course has worked on its unique concept “project designstudies” through consistent research and other efforts in response to the previous
Certified Evaluation and Accreditation for Professional Graduate Business School, theconcept has still not been clearly defined, which is an issue. In addition, even though
the basic subjects and specialized subjects are offered as core subjects for learning in
the curriculum, only two credits are earned in compulsory subjects, making it unclear
what are the fundamental subjects in project design studies. Therefore, the Course needs
to design a curriculum that allows students to systematically learn about project designstudies if it wants to highlight its distinctive features. The MPD degree awarded in theCourse is presented as a degree that adds the aspect of creative imagination to an MBAdegree. However, basic subjects in marketing, finance, and other areas essential tocorporate management are only offered as elective compulsory subjects, and corporate
ethics subjects, which are essential for highly skilled professionals, are not offered atall. This should be improved.
Second, in part to solve the first issue, research activity must be conducted todefine and establish “project design studies.” Although the Course is working on anumber of initiatives to this end, it is vital for full-time faculty members to possess
research skills and for the Course to actively promote research. As it stands, the Course
has a faculty consisting of members with considerable achievements and experience,both academic and practical. However, as there is no criteria or requirements thatspecifically describe the research skills required of full-time teaching staff upon hiring
or promotion, these should be stipulated. Additionally, the Course should create a
research environment and support system for full-time teaching staff, promote research
activity, and appropriately evaluate research activity when evaluating achievements.
Third, regarding educational activity, improvement is needed in the areas below
to ensure that students take subjects in a systematic fashion. For instance, the maximum
number of credits students can register for in a year exceeds the number of credits
required for course completion. Therefore, measures should be implemented to ensurethat students take subjects each year in a well-balanced fashion. Another issue is thatthe subject lesson plan and criteria for assessment of academic achievement are notclearly presented in the syllabus. Improvements should be made to ensure appropriate
syllabus creation. Attendance is handled differently among teaching staff in theassessment of academic achievement, and there are cases where students earn credits
without attending at all. Therefore, the Course should ensure rigorous and fairassessment of academic achievement. In addition, given the importance of tracking,analyzing, and evaluating the careers and achievements of graduates to identify2Graduate School of Project Design, Course of Project Design

educational outcomes, the Course should consider creating a useful system to improvethe current low questionnaire return rate among graduates.
Regarding the first and second issues, the Dean (who advises the President inuniversity management and serves as a coordinator with the school corporation) andother teaching staff have discussed the concept of “project design studies” in depth in
FD training sessions, etc., and efforts have been made to ensure that all teaching staff
are on the same page. These activates are expected to lead to the establishment of“project design studies” and the development of a curriculum based on the concept.
Moreover, as the Graduate School aims to establish campuses in locations other thanTokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and Nagoya, the current campus locations, in order to achieve
the goal of nationwide adoption of project design presented in the medium-term plan,
as well as planning to establish a doctoral program, establishing the educational systemfor developing project design skills as a clearly defined academic field is the mostimportant challenge for the Course. In view of the fact that the Course has developed astep-by-step curriculum and secured the necessary faulty, the JUAA has determined that
the Course conforms to the standards. However, the JUAA strongly urges the Course
to appropriately address the numerous issues described above to ensure the quality ofeducation. Furthermore, the JUAA hopes the Course makes further improvements to its
program by broadening its scope, such as learning from project design-related
educational initiatives in other countries.

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