May 2023 | IR Team, Office of the President

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University
Graduation Survey
Basic Summary Report AY2022

Table of Contents
SURVEY SUMMARY .......................................................................................................................................... 2PURPOSE OF THE SURVEY ............................................................................................................................. 2
SUBJECT OF THE SURVEY ............................................................................................................................... 2
SURVEY METHODOLOGY .............................................................................................................................. 2
SURVEY PERIOD .......................................................................................................................................... 2
MAIN SURVEY ITEMS ................................................................................................................................... 2
STATUS OF COLLECTION ................................................................................................................................ 2
RESPONSE STATUS ........................................................................................................................................... 3
MATTERS RELATED TO GROWTH AND ACQUIRED SKILLS ....................................................................................... 3
WHILE IN APU ........................................................................................................................................... 5
LEVEL OF SATISFACTION WITH APU ................................................................................................................ 6
CAREER OPPORTUNITIES AFTER GRADUATION .................................................................................................. 6p.

1Survey Summary
Purpose of the Survey
We will survey graduates on their sense of growth and satisfaction with university life at the time of graduation,
as well as their English language skills and career paths, in order to grasp the actual status of students, verify
educational outcomes, understand the current status of issues, and link these to activities for improvement.

Subject of the survey
Undergraduate students who graduated inAY2022 (September 2022 and March 2023) 1,132

Survey Methodology
Online survey via the Internet (name provided)

Survey period
September 2022 graduates: September 2022, March 2023 graduates: March 2023

Main survey items①Issues related to growth (sense of growth)②

Acquired competencies③

Ability of Language Operation④

Relationships while in school (number of friends of other nationalities)⑤

Experience of traveling abroad⑥

Sense of belonging and satisfaction with the university⑦

Career Opportunities after Graduation⑧

Satisfaction with career path

Status of collection
The survey was conducted to 1,132
respondents, of whom 724 responded (64%response rate).
The breakdown by college and domestic andinternational students is shown on the right.
There is no significant bias by respondentdemographics.

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Response Status
Issues related to growth and acquired skills
Acquired competencies
The following are the resultsof a 5‐point scale (from "verymuch" to "not at all")regarding the qualities andabilities acquired during
student life at APU, according
to the 20 competencies of theAPU Rubric. Positive opinions
exceeded approximately 90%
in all competencies. The
competencies that received
the most positive responses
were "empathy," "flexibility,"and "understanding diversity,"
with 66.2% of respondents
saying that they had "acquireda great deal" of empathy.

Experienced a sense ofgrowth
The question was asked, "What is theexperience that has given you thegreatest sense of growth throughout
your student life?" The following are theresults of this question, in which therespondents were given a choice
between regular and extra‐curricular
activities, as well as activities outside of
the university. (Multiple selections notallowed).
26.7% were involved in extracurricular
activities (clubs, student staff), 23.9% in
regular classes, which together
accounted for about 50%, and 10.3% in
regular classes (seminars, graduationtheses) and 10.3% in dormitory
experiences, which together accounted
for about 70 %. Many students feel thatthey have grown through their on‐
campus experiences.

Ability of Language Operation
The following are the results of the questions regarding the operational ability of the languages, including theAP language. About 80% of the domestic students answered that their English proficiency was at the "daily lifelevel," which is the sum of "I can understand and speak short, simple expressions in daily life" and "I canparticipate in discussions on daily matters," while 15% answered that they could "discuss matters related to
my field of expertise in English.
About 55% of the international students answered that their Japanese language proficiency was at the "dailylife level," and 38.4% answered that they could "discuss matters related to their field of specialization inJapanese.

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Korean is the language in which
the largest number of AP
students, both domestic andinternational, have acquired themost operational proficiency,
followed by Chinese.

English Scores
The results of the question
about English language
scores held are shown
below. Among domestic
students, 55.5% hold
TOEIC‐IP scores and 20.8%
hold IELTS scores.

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While in APU
Friendships with other nationalities
The question asked about friendships with other nationalities, divided into the number of "friends with whom
one can share hobbies and fun" and the number of nationalities of these friends. Domestic students reported
having an average of 11 friends from about 6 countries, while international students reported having 22 friends
from about 9.6 countries. On the other hand, 10% (35) of the domestic students reported having zeromultinational friends.

Overseas Travel
The following are the results of the question
regarding whether the students have traveled
abroad during their study leave or vacation. TheAY2022 graduates were affected by the factthat their second and third years were underoverseas restrictions due to the COVID‐
19(Spring 2020‐Fall 2021), which prevented
them from having the opportunity to travel
abroad. The percentage of domestic students
who have never traveled abroad has doubled toabout 40% compared to March 2020 graduates(21.6%).

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Satisfaction with APU
The results of questions regarding satisfaction with the university
were divided into three categories: "Would you recommend APU
to others (recommendation to others)," "sense of belonging toAPU," and "pride in having graduated from APU”. In both cases,
positive opinions exceeded 80%. ("Recommendation to others,"
82.1%; "Sense of belonging," 80.1%; "Pride," 84.9%). This is anincrease of 3 to 9 percentage points over the pre‐COVID‐19 (2019graduates).

Career Opportunities after Graduation
Career Opportunities after Graduation
The following are the results of the question about post‐graduation career paths. The career decision rate fordomestic students at the time of employment was 84.7% (2.6% going on to higher education and 82.1% findingemployment), while the rate for international students was only 55% (13.5% going on to higher education and41.5% finding employment). In addition, 45% graduated undecided. The breakdown of international students
who are undecided is 34.1% who will continue their job search in Japan, 47.1% who will continue their job searchoutside of Japan, and 18.8% who are preparing for higher education. The total number of students (those whohave decided and those who plan to take the entrance exam) who choose to go on to graduate school is 101, or
14% of all graduates.

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Satisfaction with career path
The results of the question regarding
satisfaction with the career path are shown
below. Positive opinions ("very satisfied,""somewhat satisfied," and "somewhatsatisfied") were 90.4%. International
students' positive opinion was 85.4%, 7.5
points lower than that of domestic students(92.9%).

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