Certified Evaluation and Accreditation Results forProfessional Graduate Business School

Department of Industrial Technology and Innovation,
Graduate School of Engineering,Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology

Basic Information of the Institution
Ownership: National

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Accreditation Status
Year of the Review: 2019
Accreditation Status: Accredited（Accreditation Period: April 1.2020 – March 31.2025）

Certified Evaluation and Accreditation Results
for the Department of Industrial Technology and Innovation,
Graduate School of Engineering,Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology

The Department of Industrial Technology and Innovation, Graduate School ofEngineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (hereinafter referred to as
the “Department”), has made it as its purpose to train engineers, researchers, andmanagers capable of strategically providing industrial and technological ideas. A
distinctive feature of the Department is that it offers, in line with its unique purpose, acurriculum consisting of eight possible combinations produced by two learning
programs (Technology Development Practical Program intended for new graduates, andthe Human Resource Development Program for Research Management intended forworking students) and four specialized courses (the Bio Industrial Technology Course,Environment and Materials Industrial Technology Course, Advanced Machinery
Industrial Technology Course, and Information Processing Industrial TechnologyCourse). Regarding this curriculum structure, the Department presents multiple learningmodels that correspond to the general attributes of students in the freshman orientation.
Subjects consist of lecture subjects (“Common Courses”) and “ResearchProject” subjects, in accordance with the curriculum design and implementation policy(curriculum policy). It is commendable that the Department adopts a system whereby
each pair of a main supervisor and sub-supervisor in charge of providing guidance in“Research Project” consists of a practitioner faculty member and researcher faculty
member who can supplement each other. Moreover, “Research Project” is carried out by
the main supervisor through direct guidance or in a seminar-style, and, as indicated by
the graduate questionnaire, student satisfaction is generally high. In addition, a uniqueendeavor of the Department is that it provides practical subjects such as Introduction toGrant Proposals and Applied Exercise for Grant Proposal that involve applying for or
winning a research development funding.
The Department received a favorable evaluation in the National University
Corporation Assessment for the education for the second mid-term target period (April 1,2010 to March 31, 2016). This is a notable achievement in relation to the fact that theDepartment of Technology Risk Management, Graduate School of Technology
Management, which was established as an independent graduate school in 2005, wasincorporated into the Graduate School of Engineering (nine departments in total) as a2

department in 2011 in accordance with a university-wide policy.
However, although the Department has the distinctive features described above,
several issues must be pointed out.
First, the Department has a problem in its curriculum structure. Compulsory
subjects are currently limited to “Research Project” subjects and Management ofTechnology, which is an omnibus-lecture given by all practitioner faculty members. In
the Progress Report Consideration Results issued after the AY2014 certified evaluation
and accreditation, it was pointed out that the Department only provided “ResearchProject” as compulsory subjects designed to provide the basic knowledge and skills thatall graduates needed to acquire, and the report requested the Department to improve thecurriculum. As a result, the Department added Management of Technology as acompulsory subject for all new enrollees from AY2019 as a measure to improve thecurriculum. However, the curriculum is still designed in a way that enables students tocomplete the program by only learning some of the basic core knowledge in technology
management that they should master. Thus, the actual situation has not changed.
Therefore, further improvement is needed in order to enable students to acquire a
broad-range of management-related basic knowledge.
According to its mid- to long-term vision and strategy, the Department intends
to implement education and human resource development from a global perspective.
However, no organizational efforts have been made in this respect. In the current
situation, global perspectives are only incorporated into class content at the discretion ofindividual faculty members. Students are recommended to actively give oralpresentations or poster presentations in international conferences and participate inexhibitions, but this only applies to some students. Therefore, subjects aimed atdeveloping global perspectives and knowledge should be incorporated into thecurriculum in a clear manner.
Next, there is the problem of the mid- to long-term vision. In order to achieveits unique purpose, the Department has established a mid- to long-term vision andstrategy. However, the strategy lacks concreteness, and an implementation plan has notbeen presented. Therefore, the Department should promptly review its mid- tolong-term vision and strategy with regard to the consistency and suitability thereof andput the strategy into practice.
Next, when the faculty is viewed from the perspective of “bridging between
theory and practice,” which is the main purpose of the professional degree course, it isapparent that all eight researcher faculty members who are full-time faculty members of
the Department also serve as faculty members in other departments of the Graduate3

School of Engineering as well as the Faculty of Engineering, and there are more
researcher faculty members than practitioner faculty members in charge ofmanagement-related subjects. Therefore, in view of ensuring the quality of education in
the professional degree course, the Department should assign a certain number ofmanagement-related researchers as faculty members dedicated to the professional
degree course. The Department is requested to consider this issue as an issue toward thefurther realization of its basic mission as a professional graduate business school.
In its admission policy, the Department states that it accepts both new
graduates and working students. However, the enrollment status of the past few years
shows that new graduates constitute the majority of new enrollees. The Department has
made efforts to increase working students, such as holding consultation meetings bypractitioner faculty members each year, and the percentage of working students among
new enrollees in AY2019 has slightly increased. However, this is still insufficient. TheDepartment needs to clarify the reason why not many working students enroll, andimplement measures accordingly. In addition, the Department needs to make creative
efforts so that information reaches to potential enrollees. In order to widely disseminate
information on the activities carried out according to the Department’s unique purpose,
faculty members should disseminate more information through conferences andseminars, and the Department should put more effort into promoting its strengths,
distinctive features, curriculum, and faculty structure to companies.
Finally, going forward, we hope that appropriate measures are taken in
response to the matters noted herein, in order for the Department to keep on developing
as a professional graduate business school (department) focusing on industrial
technology.

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