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

Nagasaki Junshin Catholic University

Basic Information of the Institution
Ownership: Private

Location: Nagasaki, Japan

Accreditation Status
Year of the Review: 2017
Accreditation Status: accredited （Accreditation Period: April.01.2018 – March.31.2025）

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Certified Evaluation and Accreditation Resultsfor Nagasaki Junshin Catholic University
Overview
Originally part of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Maryfounded in 1934, Nagasaki Junshin Catholic University (hereafter, the University) waschartered in 1994 as a higher education institution with the Faculty of Humanities. TheMaster’s Course in Humanistic Studies Specialized Research was later added in 1998,
followed by the Doctoral Course in 2000. After expansion and reorganization, theUniversity currently consists of one faculty, five departments and one graduate school,and conducts education and research activities in Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture,
based on its founding spirit of Catholicism.
Following the Japan University Accreditation Association’s (JUAA)
University Accreditation in 2010, the University, marking the 80th anniversary of its
foundation in 2015, has reorganized its existing center into Regional Cooperation
Center to strengthen its cooperation with local governments and businesses, and makecollective efforts to contribute more actively to local communities.
This latest University Accreditation recognizes the University’s distinctive
efforts to adopt a wide range of approaches to community contribution activities,
including support programs for students with intellectual disabilities aged 18 or older
in local areas, organized by academic staff members and students in the Department ofContemporary Human Services, and open courses held by the Nagasaki Studies
Research Institute of the Nagasaki Junshin Catholic University Museum. Theseactivities are unique to the University and take place continuously to ensure furtherprogress. Based on its Regional Cooperation Center, the University is expected toachieve further growth in the coming years.
On the other hand, the faculty needs to address the lack of a system forcapping the number of credits students can register for in a year. In addition, thegraduate school’s three policies (degree award, curriculum design and implementation,and admission policies), as well as its syllabuses and FD activities, are inadequate andrequire a comprehensive overhaul. Moreover, self-study is not conducted for thegraduate school, and comprehensive self-study insufficiently implemented.
Improvements should therefore be made to optimize the self-study system, thereby
developing and operating a more effective internal quality assurance system.

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Notable Strength
Social Cooperation and Contribution
To realize the spirit of service stated in the University’s purpose and mission, theDepartment of Contemporary Human Services plays a central role in offering thelong-running “Junshin College Mitsuyama Juku (School)” educational program forstudents with intellectual disabilities aged 18 or older in local areas. In thisprogram, both academic staff members and students participate in providing
welfare support to the local community. In addition, to utilize the University’s
regional expertise, the Nagasaki Studies Research Institute of the Nagasaki
Junshin Catholic University Museum exhibits documents on Christianity and local
history, and promotes community-based research on “Nagasaki Studies.” Based onthese research results, the open “Junshin Nagasaki Studies Course” is offeredcontinuously, with its activities expanding in response to the needs of the many
participants, for example, organizing on-site training sessions requiring anovernight stay. In these ways, it is commendable that the University extensively
returns its education and research outcomes to society through ongoing activities.

Suggestions for Improvement
Educational Content, Methods, and Outcome


The Graduate Course of Humanistic Studies should improve its degree award
policy for each program to specify the intended learning outcomes, including
knowledge and abilities to be acquired, after completing the programs.

The Graduate Course of Humanistic Studies needs to improve its curriculum
design and implementation policy for each program to explicitly state the basic
approaches to educational content and methods.

In principle, the Faculty of Humanities limits the number of credits students canregister for in a year up to 48, with exceptions specified separately according to
the University’s regulations. But no exceptions are stipulated in the regulations,4with only “credits for retaken subjects” stated in the Campus Guide. With nosystems developed to confirm the excess of 48 credits during the registration
process, this situation should be improved in light of the purpose of the creditsystem.
The syllabuses for both master’s and doctoral courge in the Graduate Course of
Humanistic Studies fail to state lesson content and grading for some subjects. Thissituation should be improved by developing a system for inspecting syllabuses.

The FD activities specializing in unique educational perspectives are notsufficiently conducted in the Graduate Course of Humanistic Studies. Thissituation should be improved.

The theses screening standards are not explicitly stated in the Graduate Course of
Humanistic Studies. This situation should be improved by explicitly defining thescreening standards for each program and stating them in the course guide.

Enrollment
The admission policy is not defined for each program in the Graduate Course of
Humanistic Studies. This situation should be improved.

Internal Quality Assurance
The Self-Study Committee conducts self-study for the faculty’s education content,
but fails to implement self-study for the graduate course’s initiatives. In addition,
as for the university-wide initiatives, the University has not developed a system for
conducting self-study, with its activities inadequately inspected and evaluated.
Improvements are needed to ensure education quality by establishing a proper
self-study system and an improvement process based on the outcomes.

5Area of Serious ConcernEnrollment
In the Faculty of Humanities, the average of ratios of freshman enrollment to thefreshman enrollment cap in the past five years and the ratio of student enrollment
to the student enrollment cap are low at 0.82 and 0.79, respectively, in theDepartment of Contemporary Human Services, and the ratio of student enrollment
to the student enrollment cap is low at 0.88 in the Department of Psychology.
These ratios should be improved.