Ritsumeikan Asia PacificUniversity
Enrollment survey
Basic Summary Report for AY
2022

May 2023
Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University
Office of the President IR Team1

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Outline of the survey ............................................................................................... 3
Purpose of the survey .......................................................................................... 3
Target of the survey ............................................................................................. 3
Method of the survey........................................................................................... 3
Period of the survey ............................................................................................. 3Major survey items .............................................................................................. 3
Status of collection............................................................................................... 4
Attributes of respondents ........................................................................................ 5Behavior before enrollment ..................................................................................... 6
Reasons for knowing APU .................................................................................... 6First‐choice status ................................................................................................ 8
History of overseas travel .................................................................................... 8Learning and reading habits ................................................................................. 9Current Situation ................................................................................................... 10Expectations factor ............................................................................................ 10About your competencies .................................................................................. 10During and after graduation................................................................................... 12Study abroad preference .................................................................................... 12Field of study preference ................................................................................... 12Preference for higher education ......................................................................... 13Career preference (Location) .............................................................................. 132

Outline of the survey
Purpose of the survey
A questionnaire survey was conducted with the following three objectives for students newly enrolled in the APU.
Understand the actual conditions of new students, such as their behavior before entering the APU, motivation foradmission, and expectations, and link them to the entrance examination strategy.
Obtain their plans during enrollment and after graduation at the time of admission, which will lead to appropriate
support for students.
Measure the items listed as SGU performance indicators (e.g., overseas travel and relationships with friends other thantheir nationality).
Based on the APU Rubric, obtain students' self‐awareness of their competence at the time of enrollment to visualize
the students' sense of growth. (Only those enrolled in AY2022)

Target of the survey
5098 new undergraduates enrolled in AY2019‐2022

Method of the survey
Online survey (with their name) via the Internet.
Until AY2019, we gave face‐to‐face explanations at new student orientations and asked them to answer the survey inthe computer room at the same time.
After AY2020, we shared an instructional video about the survey and sent the link to individual student email addresses
and collected responses.
※Survey was conducted in Fall 2020 for April and September enrollment combined due to COVID‐19 outbreak onlyin AY2020.

Period of the survey
April enrollment (April 1 to mid‐May)
September enrollment (mid‐September to end of October)

Major survey items1) Reason for applying to APU.
2) Time of deciding which university to apply.
3) Information and tools for collecting information needed to make a decision.
4) The person who had the greatest influence on your decision of which university to apply. For details of the person.
5) Response of people around you when you decided to enroll in APU and who consulted with you.
6) Factors of anxiety before entering APU.
7) Experience of coming to APU prior to enrollment
8) Sense of affection for APU (sense of belonging)9) Factors that influenced your decision to enroll in APU10) Concurrently applied universities and first‐choice rates11) Learning time and reading time before enrollment12) Multinational friendships before enrollment13) Experience of overseas travel before enrollment
14) Self‐awareness of the competency of the APU Rubric at the time of enrollment (from AY2022)
15) Post‐graduation career plans of new students16) Whether they are First Generation (from AY2022)

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Status of collection
We conducted a survey of 5,098 students and received responses from 4,174 students (response rate: 81.9%).

4Attributes of respondents
Shown is a breakdown by college, domestic and international students (both with enrollment status), and by year ofenrollment. Until AY2019, the response rate was over 90% because of face‐to‐face explanations and answering thesurvey all together in the computer room during new student orientation, however, due to the COVID‐19 outbreakthat began in spring 2020, the orientation became online only, and the response rate was decreased to approximately
75%. If the response rate continues to decrease in the future, we will consider restarting the face‐to‐face survey.

5Behavior before enrollment
Reasons for knowing APU
Below are the results of a question on the initial trigger for knowing about APU.
"Senior high school teachers" are the most common domestic students, followed by personal introductions (especiallyfrom parents), friends and acquaintances, school‐related and preparatory schools. On the other hand, amonginternational students, "general media/Internet search" was the most common, with a particularly large increase in
AY2022. "Senior high school teachers" follows.

6Deciding Factors for Enrollment
The factors that made the decision to enroll in the APU are selected from 1st to 3rd place, and ranked 1st place: 3pt.
2nd place: 2pt. 3rd place: 1pt. The total points are calculated and ranked in order of high points are shown below.
Domestic students are in the order of "environment to spend with international students gathering from around theworld" in first, "language (English) education" in second and "educational content of the college" in third, whereasinternational students ranked "scholarships" in first, "educational content of the college" in second, and "environmentfor spending time with international students from around the world" in third . However, there was no significant
difference in the points, and in some years there is some switching.

7First‐choice status
The results of asking whether the APU was the first choice are shown below for each college, international student,
and domestic student. Overall, 73.9% of the respondents indicated that APU was their first choice.

History of overseas travel
The following shows the results of a question asking domestic students about their history of travel abroad before
enrollment. Until the 2019 enrollment, prior to the COVID‐19 outbreak, students who had traveled abroad before
enrollment for travel, language training, homestays, etc. greatly outnumbered those who had not, however, for the2022 enrollment, students who had not traveled abroad exceeded those who had traveled abroad for the first time.

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Learning and reading habits
The results of the questionnaire on pre‐entrance learning and reading habits are shown below in the heat map foreach domestic and international students. Approximately 30% of domestic students answered that they had five hours
or more of learning per day on holidays, which tends to be longer than international students. On the other hand,about 45% to 50% of respondents said that they "don't read" the reading time per day.

9Current Situation
Expectations factor
The results of questions on expectations for the APU are shown below. The most frequent response was "I reallyexpect," followed by "I can cultivate an international sense" and "I can meet people from various countries."Students
who answered that they "really want to deepen their expertise" were less than 50% in AY2008, but slightly increased
to approximately 56% in AY2022.

About your competencies
In order to visualize the growth of students starting in AY2022, we asked them about their own perceptions of APU
Rubric's competencies. The most commonly perceived competencies at the time of admission are "empathy (tryingto understand the other person from the other person's position or culture and accepting the other person's feelings
and thoughts)" and "empowerment (making use of one's own knowledge, skills and experience to improve theknowledge and skills of the person involved)."1011During and after graduation
Study abroad preference
The following shows the results of questions on whether or not students wish to study in countries other than Japan.
Ninety percent of domestic students answered that they "want to study abroad while they are studying," and morethan half of international students also wish to study abroad.

Field of study preference
The following shows the results of the question regarding the fields of study in which the students are interested at
the time of enrollment.

12Preference for higher education
The following shows the results of the questionnaire on advancement to higher education after graduation. Over
50% of international students wish to go on to graduate schools, and 15.3% of students answered that they wish to go
to doctoral degrees in AY2010.

Career preference (Location)
The following shows the results of questioning about where to work or proceed to higher education aftergraduation.

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