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

Sagami Women’s University

Basic Information of the Institution
Ownership: PrivateLocation: Kanagawa, Japan

Accreditation Status
Year of the Review: 2014
Accreditation Status: accredited（Accreditation Period: April.01.2015 – March.31.2022）

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Certified Evaluation and Accreditation Resultsfor Sagami Women’s University
Overview
Sagami Women’s University (hereafter, the University) succeeded The Japan Women’s
School founded in 1900, and was established as a single subject university containing
the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in 1949. Thereafter, the University established newdepartments, faculty, and graduate schools, and has gone through reorganization.
Currently, the University contains three faculties, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, theFaculty of Human Society, and the Faculty of Nutritional Science, and one graduateschool, the Graduate School of Nutritional Science. The Department of Contemporary
Life Design in the affiliated junior college was reorganized into the Department ofContemporary Life Design in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of the University in 2013.
The campus is located in Sagamihara City, Kanagawa Prefecture, and the University has
been engaged in education and research activities according to its founding sprit.
After its accreditation review by Japan University Accreditation Association(JUAA) in 2007, the University has made notable efforts in social cooperation andsocial contributions at the university level to achieve the mission of the University andits objective of developing human talent. However, several issues remain, including
student enrollment, formulation of research instruction plans in the Graduate School,
and the criteria of assessment for the joint class with the junior college. These issues
should be improved. Hereafter, the University is expected to further develop byvitalizing the faculty development activities in each faculty and graduate school, bydeveloping substantial reforms based on self-study, and by setting up an internal quality
assurance system and making it functional.
Notable Strengths
Social Cooperation and Contribution
According to the mission and purpose, the University as a whole is focused on
lifelong learning. In order to respond to requests from the local community, theUniversity established the Social Cooperation Promotion Division, and has engaged
in expansion of social cooperation and social contribution activities. For example, it
participates in the Sagamachi Consortium. In addition, in cooperation with otherlocal universities, the University offers a lifelong learning lecture series including
the Sagami Academy, and has introduced the Lifelong Learning System, which
offers the lecture series to a larger number of people. It is commendable that theUniversity has become the core of the local community and that it gives back theresults of education and research to society.

Suggestions for Improvement
Educational Content, Methods, and Outcome
Among the joint classes offered in all the faculties, those offered by the affiliatedjunior college are accepted as the part of the credits required for degree completion,
but the assessment criteria for university credits has not been set. This practice
should be improved from the standpoint of quality assurance of education.

The maximum number of credits a student can register for per a year has been set
high at 54 credits for transfer students and those taking the University-wide credittransferable subjects and the other department’s subjects. This should be improved

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in accordance with the purpose of having a credit system.
While the University as a whole has made some efforts to develop the talent of thefaculty, systematic faculty development activities have not been implemented ineach department and graduate school in order to improve the contents and methodsof education. This should be improved.

In both the master’s and doctoral programs in the Graduate School of Nutritional
Science, criteria for examining degree-seeking theses and dissertations have notbeen clearly stated for the students. This should be improved, by clearly statingthem to students in the syllabus.

Enrollment
The ratio of enrolled students to the student enrollment cap is low at 0.17 in thedoctoral programs in the Graduate School of Nutritional Science. This number
should be improved. The ratios of transfer students to the transfer student admission
cap are low at 0.20 in the Department of Japanese Language and Literature, at 0.30
in the Department of English Language, Culture, and Communication, and at 0.30
in the Department of Department of Information and Media Studies in the Facultyof Arts and Sciences, at 0.10 in the Department of Societal Management, at 0.23 in
the Department of Human Psychology in the Faculty of Human Society, and at 0.38
in the Department of Nutrition and Health in the Faculty of Nutritional Science.
These numbers should be improved.

Internal Quality Assurance
The self-evaluation by faculty and the self-study by staff have been implemented
regularly. However, the results are not connected to the self-study of the University
as a whole; thus, a system of self-study to identify and address issues for
improvement has not been established. An internal quality assurance system should
be developed by connecting constant reviews by faculty and staff to self-study of
the University as a whole, so that internal quality assurance works appropriately.

Area of Serious Concern
Educational Content, Methods, and OutcomeIn the master’s and doctoral programs in the Graduate School of Nutritional
Science, the research instruction plans have not been formulated. Researchinstruction and thesis (dissertation) writing guidance must be offered according to
the research instruction plan.

Enrollment
The average of the ratios of enrolled freshmen to the freshmen admission cap in thelast five years and the ratios of enrolled students to the student enrollment cap are
low at 0.79 and 0.76 respectively in the Department of Japanese Language andLiterature, at 0.69 and 0.62 respectively in the Department of English Language,Culture, and Communication, at 0.66 and 0.60 respectively in the Department ofDepartment of Information and Media Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences,
and at 0.81 and 0.76 respectively in the entire Faculty of Arts and Sciences, at 0.68
and 0.64 respectively in the Department of Societal Management in the Faculty of
Human Society, and at 0.87 and 0.79 respectively in the entire Faculty of Human

4Society. These numbers must be improved by setting appropriate quotas.