Certified Evaluation and Accreditation Results forProfessional Graduate Business School

Strategic Management Course, Chuo Graduate School of Strategic
Management, Chuo University
Basic Information of the Graduate School
Name of Institution: Chuo University
Ownership: Private

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Accreditation Status
Year of Review: 2012
Accreditation Status: Accredited (Accreditation Period: April 1, 2013 – March 31, 2018)

Related Links
Course Information:
http://global.chuo-u.ac.jp/english/academics/professional/business.php
Full Text of the Accreditation Results (in Japanese):
http://www.juaa.or.jp/accreditation/management/result_2012.html
Accreditation Standards, Process and other related information (in English):http://www.juaa.or.jp/en/accreditation/business_school.html

Certified Evaluation and Accreditation Results
for the Strategic Management Course,
Chuo Graduate School of Strategic Management, Chuo University

The Strategic Management Course (hereafter SMC) in the Chuo Graduate School ofStrategic Management at Chuo University states, in line with the meaning of theuniversity’s founding spirit of “cultivating a disposition of practical application,” its
educational mission as follows: “by fusing the intellectual creativity of Chuo University
as research university and the knowledge our Japanese industry sector has developed,
and by fostering highly specialized professionals who have high ethics and character,
who have international perspectives, and who excel in creativity and ability to takeaction, [the SMC] contributes to the growth of their organizations, sustainable socialand economic developments, and the creation of new cultures.”
Based on this educational mission, the SMC sets its educational purpose as
follows: “cultivating contemporary strategic management leaders, who can plan andimplement corporate strategies—i.e., the leaders who can plan and implementfunctional strategies from corporate-level perspectives with ‘strategic thinking’ that isbased on systematic knowledge, while working in such functional areas as marketing,human resource management, and finance—by fostering [students’] deep knowledge
and excellent abilities to become highly trained professionals who can learn and conduct
research comprehensively and systematically in the five areas focusing on management
strategies (i.e., ‘strategies,’ ‘marketing,’ ‘human resource management,’ ‘finance,’ and‘corporate legal affairs’).” In particular, the JUAA acknowledges that the concept of“cultivating strategic management leaders” as a differentiating point of the SMC fromother existing professional graduate business schools does not detract from its
significance as one of such schools, and that the concept is appropriate to the statutory
purpose of having professional graduate school systems. Moreover, the JUAA
appreciates that, in order to accomplish its mission and purpose, the SMC has diverseand fulfilling curricula and excellent faculty and staff with a high quality environment
for education and research, and that its faculty and staff members are united in striving
to do their best to ensure the quality of education by devising innovative means andmaking efforts in various ways.
However, the environment which surrounds business schools, including
professional graduate business schools, and the competitions they face are shifting
toward globalization. The SMC, therefore, needs to show its presence in the worldwide
competitions. For that purpose, we make the following three points concerning
educational content. First of all, the SMC is expected to clarify its principles forinternationalization strategies and make a steady implementation of initiatives that arecurrently under consideration, such as building partnerships with universities abroadand establishing “Research Project” classes to conduct investigations overseas.
Secondly, the JUAA expects that, in order to extend its strengths further, the SMC
reforms its curricula to further enhance the organic link of the five areas mentioned
above. In particular, it is required that the SMC, in order to ensure its purpose of“cultivating strategic management leaders,” further examine the ways to develop andenrich subject matters in the area of “leadership” and to establish the SMC’s teachingmethods concerning leadership education, in addition to organically connecting the fiveareas mentioned above. Thirdly, the JUAA expects that, because the area of “corporatelegal affairs” is a specialization owing to the venerated tradition and legacy of legal
studies at Chuo University and because it is a major element for the SMC todifferentiate itself from other business schools, the SMC further develops its organic
connections to the other specialization areas.
To carry out the above-mentioned three points concerning the SMC’s
educational content, we point out that following two measures are needed as facultyorganization initiatives. First, the JUAA expects the SMC’s further improvements invarious aspects such as the further increase of the number of full-time faculty, thepursuit of quality in research and education through faculty development opportunities(FD, organizational professional development opportunities for faculty members toimprove the content and methods of their teaching), and the enhancement of educationaland research environments. Second, the JUAA expects that the SMC, in order toenhance research and educational activities and so ensure and improve the quality ofeducation, establishes and maintains the methods and indicators to evaluate directly theresearch and educational activities of each individual full-time faculty member and asystem to grasp the degree of contributions that he/she makes to the management of theSMC.
Moreover, since setting up a doctoral program is an attempt to explore various
forms of professional graduate business schools, the JUAA strongly expects that theSMC makes efforts to substantiate its doctoral program and to further fortify the organiccooperation between its doctoral and professional master’s programs.*To make improvements and carry out reforms in these areas, it is necessary for
the SMC to draw up a medium- to long-term vision that clearly states the medium- andlong-term attainment goals and images based on the university-wide future prospective,in addition to an annual action plan. Moreover, although evaluating the degree ofachievement in educational goals takes a long time, it is expected that the SMC
positively adopts evaluations by graduates, current students, and business professionals
to flexibly reform its curricula, and for that purpose clarifies the challenges it meets inorder to establish curricula for “cultivating strategic management leaders” in its
medium-term plan. In particular, the JUAA, while highly appreciating the progressive
spirit shown by such initiatives as efforts for new curricula responding to theever-changing environment surrounding the SMC, expects that the SMC specifies these
new initiatives in its mid-term plans to strongly promote its development as a businessschool.
Finally, to end, the JUAA expects that the SMC strengthens its distinguishing
characteristics to lead to its further development and fulfillment by doing continuous
self-study and drawing up a medium- to long-term vision together with efforts for theimprovements and reforms.

*Note that the JUAA is not responsible for the evaluation and accreditation of the
SMC’s doctoral program.