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

Miyagi Gakuin Women's University

Basic Information of the Institution
Ownership: Private

Location: Miyagi, 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 Resultsfor Miyagi Gakuin Women’s University
Overview
Miyagi Gakuin Women’s University (hereafter, the University) upholds the founding
philosophy of “providing education rooted in Evangelical Christianity with the aim toteach women to fear God, to seek truth with both freedom and humility, to respect allpeople on the principle of loving all our neighbors, and to work for the better welfare of
all humans and to contribute to world peace.” To realize its purpose “to provide university
education to women rooted in Christianity” and its missions “to promote the Christianvalue of love, enhance academic culture, support the improvement and progress of socialand family life, especially in northern Japan, and strive to develop the spirit ofinternational cooperation,” the University offers education programs anchored incharacter and liberal arts education reflecting Christian values. Based on the MGU Master
Plan adopted in 2014, the University has actively implemented reform and wasreorganized in FY2016 into four faculties and nine departments. Previously it had one
faculty and ten departments.
On the education front, all undergraduate and graduate schools offer acurriculum appropriate for their curriculum design and implementation policies, withclasses actively incorporating the active learning method. In line with its purpose andmission the University offers all students a set of liberal arts classes called “MGUStandard” with the aim of developing women who can take ownership of their lives intoday’s world. This is a highly commendable effort likely to succeed in developing instudents the ability to take ownership in creating a vision of their future.
In terms of social cooperation and contribution, a range of activities are vigorously
implemented by various centers under the leadership of the Social Liaison Center. The
Liaison Action Center (MG-LAC), in particular, designs and assists voluntary projecttype learning programs conducted in cooperation with the local community. The programis a remarkable initiative that has contributed to the recovery and revitalization of thelocal community over an extended period of time.
There are a number of issues the University needs to address, however. The
degree award policy of some graduate school courses does not contain student learning
outcomes appropriate for the degree offered. The efforts to ensure the course workloads
align with the credit hour definition are insufficient, and a few undergraduate andgraduate schools have issues with their enrollment management. Furthermore, the3

graduate schools fail to implement their own faculty development (FD) programs. Theseissues should be addressed.
Internal Quality Assurance (IQA), the process for universities to assure thequality of their education, research, and other activities, is an element of the review thatJUAA considers the most crucial. While the University has an organization responsiblefor implementing self-study, the Self-Monitoring Committee, it has no documented IQA
policy or procedures in place. Also, although the Miyagi Gakuin Women’s University
Self-Monitoring and Assessment regulations stipulate that the Self-Study Administration
Committee is responsible for identifying the areas that require improvement based on theresults of self-study conducted by the undergraduate and graduate schools, reporting its
recommendations to the Faculty Council, and undertaking the necessary improvements,
in reality the improvements are made in ways that do not conform with these rules. This
has led JUAA to conclude that the University lacks an appropriate system to facilitate
improvement efforts based on the self-study results in accordance with the rules, andadvises that this situation be corrected.
Going forward it is important for the University to address these issues and workon quality assurance for further development of the institution.
Notable Strengths
Educational Program and Outcome

The University offers “MGU Standard” as a set of liberal arts courses aimed atdeveloping women capable of leading autonomous lives in today’s world. It consistsof three course categories: (1) a wide range of courses, such as “Religious Studies
and Modern Society,” “Women's Life and Rights,” and “Modern Society and Women,”
designed to encourage students to explore their life and future as women; (2) courses
to develop skills required for work, including language skills and information
processing skills; and (3) career-design courses students can take over four years.
MGU Standard was established based on character and liberal arts educationreflecting the teachings of Christianity in line with the University’s mission andpurpose, and is a highly commendable effort expected to succeed in developing theability of students to take ownership in creating a vision of their future.

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Social Cooperation and Contribution
The Liaison Action Center (MG-LAC) is a resource that creates and assists students
by providing opportunities to connect with the local community, and supports thestudent-run community cooperation effort called the “Sanagi Project/TebirakkoProject,” consisting of many types of projects, large and small, designed to help
rebuild and revitalize local communities. The Center secures external funding andactively implements regional and international exchange programs as well. It iscommendable that these on-going activities are resulting in a growing number ofpartner organizations and increasing the interest in collaborating with the Center, andmore importantly, the achievement of the University’s mission of developing women
who can take ownership of their lives in today’s world.

Suggestions for Improvement
Educational Program and Outcome
The degree award policies of the courses of English, Japanese Literature, and Cultural
Studies of the Graduate School of the Humanities and Cultural Sciences do not state
the expected learning outcomes in terms of knowledge, skills, and competencies
appropriate for the degrees conferred in each course. The descriptions of therelationship between the general and specialized education in the degree award
policies and the curriculum design and implementation policies of the undergraduate
and graduate school are not fully consistent with those in the university-wide degree
award policies and curriculum design and implementation policies. These issues
should be addressed.

There are some inconsistencies in the graduate school syllabus, indicating the checks
by the Academic Affairs Committee are inadequate. This issue should be addressed.

To ensure that course workloads align with the credit hour definition, the University
sets a cap on the number of credits for which a student can register in a year. Thismeasure is not effective because of exceptions made for the certification or license
preparation courses, and in fact a significant number of students exceed the credit
limit. The pre- and post-class studies required in the syllabus are not sufficient toensure that the workload merits the credits earned. This issue should be addressed in5light of the purpose of the credit system.
TOEIC scores, assessment test results, and thesis evaluation results are used ascriteria to determine the student learning outcomes in some of the undergraduate andgraduate schools, but the achievement of the learning outcomes established in thedegree award policy are not fully measured and assessed pending the developmentof the criteria. This issue should be addressed.

Student Enrollment


The ratio of student enrollment to the student enrollment cap is low at 0.34 in theGraduate School of Humanities and Cultural Sciences. Graduate school enrollment
should be managed more effectively.

Faculty and Faculty Organizations


The Graduate School should implement its own FD programs in an appropriatemanner.

Education and Research Environment
The Graduate School’s efforts to instill research ethics in students are insufficient andshould be improved.

University Administration and Finances
The decision-making process in university administration is not always clear due todiscrepancies between the rules and actual practices in terms of the positioning,responsibilities, and authority of the key positions (e.g. deans) and meeting bodies
that include the Sanyaku Meeting, President’s Liaison Meeting, and President’s
Strategy Office. The University should define a clear administration policy andestablish rules for the administrative organizations to demonstrate appropriatenessand transparency in organizational management, and ensure that each organization
performs its duties responsibly.

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Recommendations
Internal Quality Assurance
Although there is an organization responsible for overseeing the self-study of theentire institution, there is no documented internal quality assurance (IQA) policy orprocedure, and in particular, the authority and responsibilities of each organization inimplementing improvement measures based on the self-study results are unclear.
Miyagi Gakuin Women’s University Self-Study Rules stipulate that the Self-Study
Administration Committee identifies the areas that require improvement based on theresults of self-study conducted by the undergraduate and graduate schools, reports its
recommendations to the Faculty Council, and undertakes the necessaryimprovements, but in reality the improvements are made in ways that do not conformwith these rules. Moreover, the improvement measures have so many issues from an
educational standpoint that it is difficult to conclude they reflect the self-study results
appropriately. Going forward the University must define the authority andresponsibilities of the IQA organizations, ensure that the self-study practices arerelevant, and create a system capable of assisting the improvement measures basedon the self-study results.

Student Enrollment
In both the Department of Cultural Studies and the Department of Music, Faculty of
Liberal Arts, the average ratios of freshman enrollment to the freshman enrollment
cap over the past five years are low at 0.74 and 0.73, respectively, and the ratios ofstudent enrollment to the student enrollment cap are also low at 0.73 and 0.79,
respectively. Undergraduate enrollment must be managed more effectively.