(11) Types of Schools subject to the Special Provision for International Cooperative Curricula

☐ The types of schools that are entitled to organize and implement ICC in this scheme are faculties of universities, schools of graduate schools, departments of junior colleges, and schools of professional graduate schools. (Law schools and distance learning education will be excluded.)

○ A deliberate consideration should take place to see if law schools are made subject to ICC Scheme. The aim of law schools is to train legal professionals, but the Government of Japan is currently discussing the possibility of fundamentally reviewing the present legal professional training systems in which law schools are placed as core educational institutions. Moreover, it will be necessary to make arrangements with the Ministry of Justice and other relevant organizations presiding over the national bar examination system about such details as minimum credits required for JD. Thus, it has been concluded that law schools will be excluded from the scheme at this time, though it is assumed that they will be made subject to the scheme in future.

○ Degree programs consisting of distance learning remains outside the scope of ICC Scheme because the DCC Scheme has not introduced distance learning due to opinions that further discussion should take place to see if distance learning at on-campus education is appropriate to DCC Scheme. A decision for ICC Scheme will be made after the discussion about the introduction of distance learning to the DCC Scheme has come to a conclusion.

The completion of formal curricula in some fields whose aim is to nurture relevant specialists (medical doctors, dentists, pharmaceutical chemists and veterinarians) is a prerequisite for qualifications for relevant national examinations. It is crucial to carefully examine whether ICC are relevant to these fields in light of the nurture of these specialists. The curricula in these fields are also inextricably linked with the acquisition of national qualifications, so that arrangements must be made in advance with the requirements for the qualifications prior to the introduction of ICC Scheme. Taking all these factors into account, a supplementary provision prescribes that academic programs of the field mentioned above serving as prerequisites for qualifications for national examinations be excluded from the scheme for the time being, while legal measures will be taken under the main rules of the Standards for the Establishment of Universities so that the possibility of introducing ICC Scheme to these fields can be examined in line with the operation of JD programs in other fields in future. As for the students who enter universities under the School Education Law by academic year 2017, graduate the four-year curricula in pharmacological sciences, and complete the master’s or PhD degree programs in pharmacological sciences, there is a transitional measure that they can be qualified to take the national examination for pharmaceutical chemists, if the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare finds them to have the academic ability and skills equivalent or superior to those who have completed the six-year curricula and graduated, pursuant to the provisions.