Results for Certified Evaluation and Accreditation
for Professional Graduate School of Digital Contents

Digital Hollywood University, Graduate School

Basic Information of the Institution
Ownership: Private

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Accreditation Status
Year of the Review: 2021
Accreditation Status: accredited （Accreditation Period: April 1, 2022 – March 31, 2027）

Digital Hollywood University, Graduate School

Certified Evaluation and Accreditation Resultsfor Digital Hollywood University, Graduate School

The mission of Digital Hollywood University, Graduate School is “to nurtureindividuals who can contribute to the development of human society in general bycreating and developing new knowledge relationships from the countless pieces ofknowledge produced by humankind, as well as contributing to the development ofculture and industry by conducting practical research and development associated withthe aforementioned goal.” In order to achieve this mission, the graduate school has as
its educational purpose “to conduct advanced specialized education that connects
theory with practice in the SEAD field—an emerging field of study in which theknowledge, techniques, and skills of science, engineering, art, and design mutuallyaffect each other—and nurture individuals capable of conducting social implementation
for the prosperity and sustainable development of human society.” In line with thispurpose, the full-time teaching staff at the Media Science Laboratory conduct researchin the fields of digital media and digital content toward training individuals who cancreate new industries and culture through digital technology and content and who canspread and develop content and businesses that leverage creativity and digitaltechnology for society, striving to develop systematic digital content theories based on
the research outcomes.
The graduate school underwent the first ever Certified Evaluation andAccreditation for Professional Graduate School of Digital Contents by the JUAA in
2017. Since issues were identified regarding the development of a curriculum andfaculty for connecting theory and practice, the accreditation results requested theGraduate School to apply for the next Certified Evaluation and Accreditation forProfessional Graduate School of Digital Contents as soon as possible. Meanwhile, theGraduate School has fundamentally revised its educational purpose and curriculum,
creating the current SEAD concept and reorganizing the curriculum around it. Inaddition, the Graduate School has hired new teaching staff capable of teaching theory
to develop a faculty suitable for conducting education aimed at connecting theory andpractice. In the process, as the field of digital content is not necessarily based on
existing academic fields, the Graduate School has promoted digital content research as
mentioned above, while also utilizing the research results in education and making
various improvements.
The current Certified Evaluation and Accreditation for Professional Graduate
1Digital Hollywood University, Graduate School

School of Digital Contents identified distinctive initiatives such as those below. First,
alongside addressing various issues, the Graduate School has formulated the DHU 2025
AGENDA as a medium- to long-term strategy to conduct education that leverages theschool’s characteristics, clearly presenting the guiding principles for university startups
and social cooperation. In addition, the Graduate School holds public presentation
sessions featuring outstanding works and business plans chosen from among students’completion projects, which are compilations of their study and research, as well as
holding the Digital Frontier Grand Prix in the entrance ceremony, which involves
presenting awards to the year’s graduates who have produced remarkable works. It isthus commendable that the Graduate School actively disseminates its educational andresearch objectives by presenting the achievements of its graduates to a broad audience.
Second, as distinctive endeavors aimed at enhancing the quality of completion projects,
the Graduate School offers subjects that allow students to engage in their completionproject in a stepwise manner from the first year, provides students the opportunity tohave an interview to select a suitable supervisor for them, and also enables students togain advice from multiple teaching staff even after starting research.
Therefore, as described above, the Graduate School has been initiating many
improvements during the last four years. However, as further improvement is required
for the areas described below, it needs to make quality assurance efforts in its
professional degree program.
First of all, in terms of designing a curriculum for connecting theory and practice,
the Graduate School has clarified the subjects designed for learning the basics andtheories of digital content by reorganizing the curriculum around the SEAD concept.
However, as only the two credits of Principles of Advanced Science and Principles ofAdvanced Art are required subjects, the Graduate School should provide a curriculum
and guidance for taking courses that allow students to sufficiently acquire the basics
and theories while making efforts to improve fundamental and theoretical digitalcontent subjects. In relation to the above, the Graduate School has been recruiting a
new academic faculty member each year in an effort to organize a faculty with a goodbalance between practitioner faculty members and academic faculty members. TheJUAA hopes the Graduate School continues to appropriately hire and assign teaching
staff to achieve a faculty suitable for conducting education aimed at connecting theory
and practice.
Next, it is appropriate that the Graduate School has formulated and implemented
criteria for completion projects and clearly presented the perspectives of evaluation tostudents. However, in order to identify and evaluate educational outcomes, it needs to2

Digital Hollywood University, Graduate School

clarify the skills students are expected to acquire through the completion project anddevelop a system that allows evaluation based on comparison with the skills (learningoutcomes) presented in the degree award policy (diploma policy) that students must
acquire by graduation. Additionally, although the Graduate School has attempted to
identify outcomes on the basis of the number of completion projects that led touniversity startups, it should employ a variety of other methods, such as
identifying/analyzing the number of awarded degrees and the careers and achievementsof graduates on an organizational scale, to assess the achievement of its educational andresearch objectives.
The Graduate School should ensure faculty diversity in terms of gender balance,etc. In addition, although the Graduate School has launched the Collaboration Council
for Educational Program (Advisory Board) and incorporated opinions gathered there
into its curriculum, the relevant information is not published on the school website, etc.
Therefore, the Graduate School should strive to disclose information in accordancewith the relevant laws.
As described above, through cutting-edge initiatives the Graduate School ismaking constant efforts to present new forms of digital communication for an advanced
information society that involve the utilization of digital content, which is significant
to the future of society. In order to implement the above, the JUAA hopes the Graduate
School ensures organizational continuity while actively promoting research in thedigital content field to develop a systematic program for theory education.

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