Certified Evaluation and Accreditation Results forProfessional Graduate Business SchoolKenichi Ohmae Graduate School of Business, Department ofManagement, Master of Business Administration Program

Basic Information of the Institution
Ownership: Private

Accreditation Status
Year of the Review: 2014
Accreditation Status: unaccredited

Location: Tokyo, Japan

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Certified Evaluation and Accreditation Results
for the Kenichi Ohmae Graduate School of Business, Department of Management,
Master of Business Administration Program
The Business Administration Program in the Department of Management in the Kenichi
Ohmae Graduate School of Business (hereafter, the Program) has the educational idealof “achieving the creation of innovative knowledge at the world level by constantly
offering free and open-minded intellectual exploration activities that embody a frontier
spirit and a high level of professional ethics.” The Program engages in educational
activities with the purpose of “cultivating world leaders who are equipped with thetalent to make decisions and take action on their own initiative and helping themachieve advanced special competencies through the creation and inheritance ofknowledge.”
The Program was founded in 2005. It applied to Japan University Accreditation
Association (JUAA) for the Certified Evaluation and Accreditation for Professional
Graduate Business School in 2009 and was accredited. This is the second accreditation
review by JUAA. As an online university, the most notable feature of its educational
efforts is to foster advanced specialist professionals through e-learning education via theinternet. This venture provides an educational environment that reaches far beyond thegeographical and temporal limitationsof adults who want to study while keeping theirRjobs. Employing AirCampus○, the Program’s own proprietary e-learning platform,
students have access to Program lectures on their personal computers, smartphones, andtablets 24 hours
a day. Most of the classes offer online discussion forums through
RAirCampus○, ensuring numerous opportunities for interactive education.
The curriculum of the Program consists of three components: “thinking andanalytical basis,” “management skills,” and “integration.” In the first component,students take subjects focused on problem-finding thinking in order to acquire therequired competencies. In the second component, students take subjects in seven areas:
management, entrepreneurship, marketing, accounting and finance, organization,technology strategy, and business communication. In the third component, students
learn to develop the practical ability, including writing proposals, survey analysis
reports, and business plans. In the final year, students are required to conduct theirGraduation Research, in which they must formulate a feasible business plan or write a
research report on a specific theme as a proposal. This learning sequence progresses
with the purpose of training working adults in practical competencies and skills.
However, the Program overemphasizes practical education, and as a result
theoretical education is not sufficient. Our evaluation indicates that the mission ofprofessional graduate school education in the management field—that of bridging
theory and practice—is not exercised sufficiently.
More precisely, the effort to bridge theory and practice may be insufficient due
to the issues of the faculty organization. There are several reasons for this conclusion.
First, education within the Program depends heavily on practitioner faculty. Second, theProgram has not hired faculty who engage in theory or research. Third, most of thefaculty are not assigned the roles or responsibilities of normal full-time faculty,
including the required engaging hours in education, research and publication of itsresults, or school administration. Given this situation, the benefits of being a full-time
faculty member are limited, and without social insurance and retirement payments, thetreatment of full-time faculty is insufficient. It is necessary to make fundamental
improvements in the status and role of full-time faculty by returning to the basic
mission of professional graduate school in the field of management, bridging theory andpractice in education, and reaffirming the basic importance of theoretical education andthe improvement of research as the basis for education.
Considering these concerns seriously, JUAA has concluded that the Program
EAEAA

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does not satisfy the Professional Graduate Business School Standards of JUAA. The
online graduate school which the Program is aspiring to establish could be a disruptive
innovation that can provide education that reaches far beyond the geographical andtemporal limitations of working adults. In the future, it will hopefully provide stiffcompetition for traditional professional graduate schools in the field of management.
While the insufficiency of the basic matters of the standards in the field of management
was recognized compared to those of the traditional graduate school system in these
beginning stages, JUAA expected the continuous innovation to meet the standards, andtherefore accredited in the previous accreditation review. The focus of this time is to
examine to what extent the Program satisfies the standard with regard to the anticipatedprogress of continuous innovation after ten years from the foundation of the Programand five years from the previous accreditation review, and to identify the issues forfurther improvement.
Hereafter, the Program must correct the points of serious concern among thosedeemed necessary for further improving the quality of education and research bydeveloping a reform plan promptly. Furthermore, as for suggestions for improvement,
the Program is expected to consider it as advices to maintain and improve the quality ofeducation as well as to formulate a mid- and long-term vision.