University Accreditation Results(Results for Certified Evaluation and Accreditation for university)

Gakushuin Women's College

Basic Information of the Institution
Ownership: PrivateLocation: Tokyo, Japan

Accreditation Status
Year of the Review: 2018
Accreditation Status: accredited （Accreditation Period: April.01.2019 – March.31.2026）

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Certified Evaluation and Accreditation Results
for Gakushuin Women’s CollegeOverview
Gakushuin Women’s College (hereafter, the College) follows in the footsteps of its
predecessor, Gakushuin Women’s Junior College, in offering more advanced education
to women. To meet the objectives of “transcending national, ethnic, and cultural
boundaries, longing for peace and cultural development, and adopting a global
perspective to study and teach past steps taken and directions not yet followed in thepursuit of deeper understanding, while working together in society to cultivate characterand sensibilities, thereby developing creative female leaders ushering in the times,” theCollege established three departments in the Faculty of Intercultural Studies to cultivate
human resources capable of contributing to the international community. To respond toadvancing globalization, it formulated the Medium-term Internationalization Plan (20162020), and in line with Gakushuin Future Plan 2021 drafted by the school corporation,
the College conducts various programs with the aim of strengthening its educational
abilities and further promoting internationalization.
As for the College’s educational approaches, the undergraduate program designs
course plan models and adopts course numbering systems to follow its curriculum in asystematic and sequential way in accordance with its curriculum design andimplementation policy. The graduate program organizes a curriculum that combines
research work and coursework, and research supervisors provide systematic course
guidance for students to advance their studies by smoothly transitioning from coursework
to research work. The faculty and graduate school also undertake educational and research
activities in line with the purpose of the College by promoting overseas experiences,including study abroad and overseas training. Furthermore, the International Center playsa central role in creating a system for supporting international students with their lessons
and campus life and organizing student exchange events on campus, while the College
organizes diverse scholarship programs that offer generous support to its international
students. It is commendable that the College is committed to making its campus moreinternational in order to cultivate people who can contribute to the international
community.
While the College is actively involved in these initiatives to fulfill its purpose,
there are several issues the College needs to address: the education offered by the College
lacks in efforts to ensure credit validity; the College has failed to develop a system that3

provides support for monitoring, evaluating, and improving the learning outcomes statedin the degree award policy; student enrollment in some departments does not clearly
define the types of students desired; faculty development (FD) activities for faculty
members and faculty organization are not sufficiently conducted in the faculty andgraduate school; and the College’s administrative organization lacks the necessary
number of administrative staff members in proportion to the amount of administrative
work. The College needs to address all these challenges.
To overcome these challenges, it is important for the College to take the initiativein internal quality assurance to improve and assure its educational quality. The College
developed a new internal quality assurance system in 2017, with the Administrative
Committee positioned as the organization responsible for promoting internal quality
assurance. It operates a college-wide PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle by drafting amanagement report and plan based on the college-wide self-study implemented by theSelf-Study Committee. In the coming years, the College is expected to develop a more
efficient internal quality assurance system by clarifying the connections with its
management plans and reports pertaining to Gakushuin Future Plan 2021 and theMedium-term Internationalization Plan (2016-2020), and step up efforts to effectively
operate the system and improve its education, thereby leading to further development.
Notable Strengths
Student Support
 Diverse types of financial aid that include scholarships, grants, and subsidies areorganized for Japanese students studying abroad and international students, and areused by most of these students. The international student support system helps
international students with their lessons and campus life through Japanese language
lesson assistants and buddy systems. International exchange events and the“Traditional Culture Workshop,” designed to learn firsthand about Japan’s traditional
culture as a class subject, provide international students with an opportunity toexperience Japanese culture while at the same time offering an opportunity forJapanese students to interact with international students. It is commendable that these
efforts are helping to develop the College’s international environment, effectively
realizing the purpose of the College.

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Suggestions for Improvement
Educational Program and Outcome
 The Faculty of Intercultural Studies caps the number of credits students can register
for in each semester as a measure to ensure credit validity, but it accepts credits
exceeding the maximum for subjects related to graduation theses and research,teaching and other qualifications. The credit registration guidance gives notification,
but it is not sufficient to ensure credit validity. This issue should be improved in lightof the purpose of the credit system.
 To monitor and evaluate students’ learning outcomes stated in the degree award
policy, the College outsources the examinations to external institutions that measure
basic abilities. However, the responsibility for developing a benchmark formonitoring and evaluating learning outcomes based on the examination results is leftto each department, with benchmarks yet to be established in the faculty and graduate
school. Therefore, the learning outcomes stated in the diploma policy are notsufficiently monitored and evaluated, and this issue should be improved with theappropriate benchmarks defined.
Student Enrollment
 The types of students desired are not stated in the admission policies of theDepartment of Japanese Studies, the Department of Intercultural Communication, andthe Department of English Communication of the Faculty of Intercultural Studies, and
the Graduate School of International Cultural Relations. This issue should beimproved.
Faculty and Faculty Organization
 The faculty conducts course evaluation questionnaires by students for its FD activities,
but the utilization of the results is left to each academic staff member. Meanwhile, FD
activities as the graduate school’s primary function are not conducted. The College
should address this issue by providing proper management and support for the faculty
and graduate school to systematically undertake FD activities.

5University Management and Finance The College works to make its administrative structure more efficient by, for example,
reviewing its organization as has been done before, but many administrative staff
members hold concurrent positions, and the number of administrative employees is
low in proportion to the amount of administrative work. The College shouldsystematically inspect and assess this situation in light of the increasing workload toimprove its administrative structure.