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

International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies

Basic Information of the Institution
Ownership: Private

Location: Tokyo, 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 International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies
Overview
International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies (hereafter, the College)
originated from the International Institute for Buddhist Studies in 1996. Established by
the International College for Buddhist Studies, it comprises only of the Postgraduate
Division of Buddhist Studies which offers a five-year integrated Postgraduate Programof Buddhist Studies. The College relocated to a new campus in Tokyo’s Bunkyo Wardin 2010 and has been carrying out educational and research activities with the clear
objective to train Buddhist scholars capable of operating in the international arena.
After its accreditation review by Japan University Accreditation Association(JUAA) in 2010, the College has made improvements based on the suggestions madein the review. It formulated an internal quality assurance policy in 2016 and installed amechanism for improvement by positioning the Self-study Committee as the unit
responsible for implementing self-study and assessment as well as proposing
improvement plans based on the findings.
The College is unique in its efforts to train students in basic language andother skills necessary for their research by offering subjects on Japanese language,classics and Chinese classics for foreign students as well as Sanskrit and other subjects,
which are essential for Buddhist research, for students who have not studied thesesubjects. It has also set up a “Special course in Buddhist studies” as a compulsory
subject to develop fundamental skills in students. All students and faculty members
participate in this subject to discuss and debate research findings. This effort iscommendable because it helps broaden the students’ perspective and leads toimprovement in research quality.
On the other hand, the College needs to address several issues, including
insufficient enrollments and lack of mechanisms for career support and prevention ofharassment. Moreover, being a post graduate university with a Doctoral program only,
the College considers it unnecessary to provide career support as students are basically
expected to work as researchers. However, it should support students in building theirresearch careers. The College is expected to make further improvements by leveraging
the improvement system it established in 2016 centered on the Self-study Committeeand connect the outcomes to further development of the College.

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Notable Strengths
Educational Content, Methods, and Outcome

The College is striving to improve basic language skills of its students by offering
subjects such as Japanese language and reading comprehension of classics andChinese classics for foreign students as well as Sanskrit and Tibetan, which areessential for Buddhist research, for students who have not studied these languages.
It also holds a “Special course in Buddhist studies” in which all students andfaculty members participate to discuss and debate research findings. This helps
broaden the perspective of graduate students and increase their interest in research.
It is commendable that these efforts have resulted in a drastic increase inpresentations in academic conferences and are contributing to improvement inresearch quality.

Suggestions for Improvement
Student Support
The regulations of the student consultation office only bears a mention of“harassment” and various regulations related to overall prevention of academic
and other harassment are missing. The College also does not have any committee
or other body to prevent harassment. These issues should be addressed.

Internal Quality Assurance
Among the information required to be released in accordance with the Ministerial
Ordinance for Enforcement of the School Education Act, the College website does
not contain information on items such as qualifications of some faculty members,
employment status of graduates, and information on support provided to students
for training, selection of career path and care of physical and mental well-being.
These issues should be addressed.

4Area of Serious Concern
Enrollment
In 2017, the average of ratios of freshman enrollment to the freshman enrollment
cap and student enrollment to the student enrollment cap were low at 0.80 and 0.70
respectively. This should be improved.