Certified Evaluation and Accreditation Results forProfessional Graduate Business School

The Department of Regional Management,Graduate School of Management,Kagawa University

Basic Information of the Institution
Ownership: National

Location: Kagawa, Japan

Accreditation Status
Year of the Review: 2013
Accreditation Status: accredited （Accreditation Period:April.01.2014 – March.31.2019）2

Certified Evaluation and Accreditation Results
for the Department of Regional Management,Graduate School of Management, Kagawa University

The Department of Regional Management (hereafter, the DRM) in the Graduate School ofManagement at Kagawa University sets unique purposes. Such purposes are: to cultivate“through education and research that contribute to regional revitalization” talented persons
who “possess high ethics and the ability to deal with managements and regional policies”;
and to foster professionals who can carve out a new age of the region, including businessleaders in corporations, public officials with expertise in government, and regional
producers who can vitalize regional resources. These unique purposes fit the general
purpose of establishing a program for professional business degrees. At the same time, theDRM differentiates itself from other professional business schools with the purpose of“cultivating professionals who can carve a new age for the region,” as many others set theirchief purpose as fostering professionals and specialists in the area of business management.
In order to achieve the above purposes, the DRM has introduced a student
recruitment system through which municipal governments and regional businesses
nominate prospective students. Even though the market for business schools is not big, theDRM meets the enrollment capacity every year. This is the fruit of the DRM’s efforts forstudent recruitment.
In terms of curriculum organization, it is commendable that the DRM sets subject
matter that makes the most of its unique characteristics. That is, it makes sure that thestudents take classes in a phased manner by offering groups of subjects, including “BasicAnalytical Subject Group,” “Basic Regional Subject Group,” “Basic Subject Group,”“Applied Subject Group,” and “Project Seminars.” Specifically, the DRM has beeneffective in its efforts for fostering highly specialized professionals who are rooted in theregion by establishing three classes in the Regional Basic Subject Group: “Economic
Situation of Shikoku: Regional Revitalization and Business Managements,” “EconomicSituation of Shikoku: Regional Revitalization and Policies,” and “Economic Situation ofShikoku: Regional Revitalization and Resources”). Moreover, in other subjects, it has madeefforts for inviting lecturers with expertise in each subject from organizations outside theuniversity.
In terms of improving and reforming teaching methods, it is commendable that theDRM has taken the following initiatives. The DRM conducts a survey asking students toevaluate classes and shares the results with all the faculty members through faculty
development meetings. As a result, members of the faculty together raise concerns about
not only their own but also each other’s teaching and deliberate on measures to improveteaching. That is, faculty development activities operate effectively within the DRM.
Furthermore, it is highly commendable that the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle
functions well institutionally and educationally. For example, to better understand theevaluations and activities of graduates, the DRM has sent staff members regularly to places
where students are employed and conducted surveys to ask graduates about theirsatisfaction rates. These means offer the opportunities not only to recognize the graduates’
assessments of the program to find the problems but also to serve as an effective vehicle tohelp recruit prospective students. That is, the PDCA cycle is working.

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Having mentioned the above strengths, Japan University Accreditation Association(JUAA) must point out some issues that the DRM needs to address to achieve its uniquepurposes. First, the number of credits required for program completion is thirty-two, whichmeets the statutory requirement. However, it is necessary that the DRM reconsider whetherthis number is sufficient given that its diploma policy states that the program’s purpose is“to cultivate an ‘integrated ability’ to plan, pursue, and present.”
In addition, although it is not required that students participate in extra-curricular
activities such as planning and running symposiums and camps, many students actuallyparticipate in such activities. That is, the students’ learning goes beyond that of the thirtytwo required credits, if their extra-curricular activities are counted. However, therequirement for program completion does not assure that students can acquire knowledge
and skills worth more than thirty-two credits. So it is necessary that the DRM devises somemeasure to address this issue in terms of curriculum organization, including making extracurricular activities part of official credits and increasing the number of required credits forprogram completion.
Second, in the curriculum, the DRM defines subjects such as “Project Seminars”
and “Project Research” as the only required subjects, and others as electives. Thus, itcannot be said that the DRM ensures that the students are given sufficient opportunities toacquire the specialized knowledge (i.e., strategy, organization, marketing, finance, andaccounting) that is needed for the management of businesses and other organizations, eventhough to allow students to acquire such knowledge is the basic mission of professional
business schools. Moreover, it is possible that, in other classes, students are not equippedwith the necessary prerequisite knowledge. Thus, it is necessary to arrange the curriculumin systematic and organic ways.
In addition, in such a curriculum organization, faculty members’ role as academic
advisors (AA) becomes critical in assisting students’ as they choose their elective subjects.
For that purpose, in addition to the quality of individual faculty members, it is expected thatthe faculty members as a whole will share the understanding of their role and the
instructional content of classes, and that they will join forces to create a course work
guidance system and make it function.
Furthermore, the DRM projects three images of talented persons it cultivates—
business leaders in corporations, public officials with expertise in government, and regional
producers who utilize and vitalize regional resources. However, in terms of coursework
models, only two models have been created—one for the business management andaccounting, and the other for public policy management. It is, therefore, expected that theDRM will consider a diversification of its coursework models to help students elect courses
for their chosen program completion.
As stated at the beginning, it is the strength of the program “to foster professionals
who can open a new era of the region” focusing on the region of Shikoku. JUAA expects
that the DRM will further this strength, while devising means to organize the curriculum
and to advise students in terms of their coursework in a systematic manner, in order to carryout the basic mission of a professional business school. It hopes that the DRM will develop
itself more and more in the future.