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

Kobe-Shinwa Women’s University

Basic Information of the Institution
Ownership: Private

Location: Hyogo, 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 Kobe-Shinwa Women’s University
Overview
As the successor to Kobe-Shinwa Women’s School (founded in 1887), Kobe-Shinwa
Women’s University (hereafter, the University) was established with a single faculty in1966, located in Kobe city, Hyogo Prefecture. Thereafter, the University established
new departments, faculty, and graduate schools, and has gone through a substantialreorganization. Currently, the University contains two faculties, the Faculty ofLiterature and the Faculty of Human Development and Education, and one graduate
school, the Graduate School of Literature. The University inherited its school mottofrom the original women’s school: “Sincerity, perseverance, and compassion.” TheUniversity has formulated a ten-year conceptualization, five-year implementation planfor future development, and has clarified several issues to address and rectify.
After its accreditation review by Japan University Accreditation Association(JUAA) in 2007, the University has made notable efforts to contribute to society incooperation with the local community. For example, it played an important social
function by implementing childcare support to the community through the Child
Rearing Support Center, which also helps students interested in early childhood learning.
However, several issues remain, including the effort to substantiate the content of credit,
faculty development activities at the level of each faculty and graduate school, and themanagement of admission quotas.
Notable Strengths
Social Cooperation and Contribution
Childcare support, offered in cooperation with Kobe city, plays a very importantsocial role in providing a preparatory stage for a preschool-aged child to make asmooth transition to kindergarten or nursery school and has produced steady resultsin the local community. It is also commendable that students who engage in thissocial contribution benefit greatly in understanding childcare activities inkindergarten or nursery school through these experiences.

Suggestions for Improvement
Educational Content, Methods, and Outcome

The limit on the maximum number of credits a student can register per a year is 50
credits for the first year, 55 credits for the second and third years, and no limit for
the fourth year. This should be improved in accordance with the purpose of having
the credit system.
In each faculty and in the Psychological Clinics Major in the Graduate School ofLiterature, the organizational effort to improve the content and method of education
is not sufficient. Thus, it is expected the University will revitalize faculty
development activities to improve and maintain the quality of education.

Administration and Finance
The balance sheet ratios are below the average of private universities with theFaculty of Literature and other faculties. The rate of the carried over expenditures
for next year to the imputed income, is over 100 percent, and “the sufficiency rateof financial assets against required reserve fund” is hovering at very low level. In

3order to reconstruct its financial base, the University should make further efforts toachieve the objectives listed in the Prospect of Restoring the Finances to Healthformulated by the University in June 2014.
Area of Serious ConcernEnrollment
The average of the ratios of last five years of enrolled freshmen to the freshmen
admission cap and the ratio of enrolled students to the student enrollment cap arehigh at 1.34 and 1.30 respectively in the Department of Childhood Education in theFaculty of Human Development. These numbers must be improved.