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

Otani University

Basic Information of the Institution
Ownership: Private

Location: Kyoto, Japan

Accreditation Status
Year of the Review: 2022
Accreditation Status: accredited （Accreditation Period: April 1, 2023 – March 31, 2030）

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Certified Evaluation and Accreditation Resultsfor Otani University
Overview
Otani University is founded on the philosophy of “providing humane education basedon the Buddhist spirit, and widely imparting the outcomes of its research on a rangeof disciplines related to the humanities.” Based on this philosophy, the University
sets forth the purpose of its undergraduate education as “to cultivate good character
consonant with the Buddhist spirit, and contribute to a broader global culture byteaching and researching Buddhism and the humanities,”, while the graduate school’s
purpose is “to contribute to cultural advancement by teaching, researching, andmastering the academic theories and applications of Buddhism and the disciplines of
the humanities and social sciences in accordance with the spirit of Buddhism.” The
University defines its educational policy in the “Three Mottos,” which are “Fulfill
your duties,” “Respect one another,” and “Be true to yourself.” Furthermore, in orderto achieve the founding philosophy and purposes, the University has created “GrandVision 130 (2022-2031)” as its second medium- to long-term plan, and is working toenhance its educational and research activities based on this plan.
With respect to internal quality assurance, the University AdministrativeCouncil, the body responsible for the management of teaching and learning, has also
served as the university-wide internal quality assurance promotion organization sinceAY2020. It is commendable that the University is making efforts to link theindividual PDCA cycles to the university as a whole. Moreover, the University has
continued to enhance its internal quality assurance by regularly conducting selfstudies on the appropriateness of the internal quality assurance system, making useof the self-study results for improvements, and establishing the Institutional ResearchOffice(IR Office).
Regarding education, the University has designed its substantial curricula
by offering “The Study of Being Human” as a university-wide common subject
intended to encourage student contemplation of human beings in light of thefundamentals of the thought of the Buddha and Shinran that are directly connected
to its founding philosophy, and appropriately organized groups of specialized
subjects that coalesce the expertise of each faculty. The University also holds the FD
Workshops on syllabus development, makes good use of the Student Evaluation
Surveys, and seeks better ways to write syllabuses so as to encourage students’1Otani University

independent learning. In addition, the University caps the number of credits a student
can register in a year to ensure credit validity.
One distinctive effort is the establishment of the Buddhist Education
Center in AY2018. With research outcomes accumulated for many years at the Shin
Buddhist Comprehensive Research Institute and other organizations, it is highly
commendable that the center is able to play an important role in enhancing theUniversity’s education based on its founding philosophy and engage in various
educational activities, including reviewing the content of the university-widecommon subject “The Study of Being Human I” at the undergraduate level andcompiling its own course textbooks. It is also notable that the Community
Collaboration Room established in AY2015, working mainly with the Faculty ofSociology, contributes to community revitalization with students participating inprojects coordinated with the regular curricula and focused on the specialized areasof the faculties. Going forward, JUAA hopes this effort will further develop intocross-faculty activities with the Community Collaboration Room at the core, and leadto more independent student learning.
There are several issues the University needs to address, however. First, interms of the skills to be acquired (learning outcomes) by the time of graduation inline with the diploma policy, the Faculty of Letters and the university-wide common
subjects share the same learning outcomes. This should be corrected. As thebackground to this situation, in the transitional period from a single-faculty college(Faculty of Letters) to a university with multiple faculties, the University valued
policy consistency from enrollment to graduation on the basis of its founding
philosophy. As the University is now reviewing the diploma policy in response to theexternal assessment results, the review should be completed and efforts made toestablish a stronger educational base in accordance with its founding philosophy. Inaddition, despite the fact that each faculty has its own diploma policy, it cannot be
said that the curriculum policy is appropriate for each degree awarded, and for theMaster’s Course of the Graduate School of Humanities, the diploma policy does not
set out the skills to be acquired by the time of graduation. These also require
improvements, as does student quota management of the graduate school.
Going forward, JUAA expects the University to progress further byaddressing these issues through efforts of the University Administrative Council toimprove internal quality assurance and by promoting a number of distinctive efforts
based on its founding philosophy.

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Notable Strengths
Mission and Purpose
The Buddhist Education Center applies the outcomes of research on Buddhism
built up over many years to provide humane education based on the Buddhist
spirit that is the core of the University’s philosophy and purpose. The center
offers “The Study of Being Human I” as a university-wide common subject for
first-year students, and compiles and uses its own unique textbooks. The center
also offers subjects that connect the specialized areas of each faculty andBuddhism for second-year students, and organizes a variety of religious events.
It is commendable that the University encourages students to deepen theirunderstanding of its founding philosophy by promoting university-wide humane
education and curricula.

Social Cooperation and Contribution
The University works mainly through the Community Collaboration Room withthe local government and education board to engage in social contribution
activities that take advantage of the faculties’ areas of expertise and studentparticipation. For example, the Faculty of Sociology contributes to solving
regional issues through the Project to Rediscover Life in the Nakagawa SchoolDistrict, which seeks to revitalize depopulated areas, the Community MediaProject, which aims to improve the capacity to transmit local information, andother projects linked to the regular curricula. Such activities are commendable
as they are expected to become cross-faculty projects with the Community
Collaboration Room playing a central role, and eventually develop into
university-wide activities enhancing the independence and planning abilities ofstudents.

Suggestions for Improvement
Educational Program and Learning OutcomesThe diploma policy at the undergraduate level specifies the skills to be acquired(learning outcomes) by the time of graduation for the university-wide commonsubjects separately from the courses offered by individual faculties. However,3

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the learning outcomes required for the Faculty of Letters are same as those forthe university-wide common subjects, and the policy does not clearly define thelearning outcomes required for attaining a degree. This situation requires
improvement. For the Master’s Course of the Graduate School of Humanities,
which awards multiple degrees, the diploma policy does not set out the skills tobe acquired by the time of course completion for each degree. This also requires
improvement.
The curriculum policy for the undergraduate programs offers a broad view ofundergraduate curriculum design and implementation, but does not clearly detailthe curricula and educational methods of the individual faculties in accordancewith the diploma policy. The curriculum policy outlines the curriculum matrix ofthe university-wide common subjects and those of individual faculties, which
demonstrates differences among the faculties, but it cannot be said that itprovides a clear curriculum policy for each degree awarded. This situation
requires improvement.

Student Enrollment
The ratio of enrolled students to the student enrollment cap is low at 0.36 in theMaster’s Course of the Graduate School of Letters (name changed to theGraduate School of Humane Studies in AY2022). This ratio should be improved
with the graduate school’s student quota thoroughly managed.

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