Curriculum Policy
The Joint Doctoral Program for Sustainable Research collectively and efficiently utilizes educational resources from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, and the University of Electro-Communications, incorporates the concept and viewpoint of the United Nation’s “Sustainable Development Goals” (SDGs) in an efficient and practical manner, and provides a cooperative humanities and sciences curriculum that is systematic yet flexible so as to cultivate practical and global students.
SDGs, adopted at the 2015 UN Summit, indicate priority issues confronting the international community in the areas of economy, society, and environment that should be resolved, and a view of the ideal world,
Specifically, they are development goals that capture a wide range of societal and cultural challenges such as eradicating poverty in developing countries and making improvements in areas of health and education, which must be dealt with to ensure the society to be equal, healthy, descent, and stable, regardless of the region in the world.
The key concept in this is sustainability and it is a conceptual expression that call the international society for working together for the realization of fairness and justice. In order to achieve such “sustainable development”, the essential elements for SDGs include “economic growth”, “social inclusion”, and “environmental protection”. In the JDPSR, these essential elements are tackled through various approaches in humanities and social as well as natural sciences.
Specifically, research and education at the JDPSR are characterized as follows.
- Establish “Basic Studies in the Sustainability Research” as a common foundational subject to acquire practical theory and technique with an international mindset and international applicability that is based on universal and practical knowledge.
- Establish a “Seminar and Laboratory Work for Sustainability Research” subject to acquire advanced expertise and the ability to think logically and adapt to diverse as well as different culture, as well as nurture flexible consensus building capabilities.
- Establish a “Practicum and Internship” subject to refine the ability to think logically and facilitate communication in international settings.
- To ensure the “Seminar and Laboratory Work for Sustainability Research subject” is effective for implementing research for the doctoral thesis, offer a comprehensive education made up of three aspects: understanding, analysis, and implementation.
- The curriculum will adopt a triplet structure that includes each of the three phases of education above and will be mutually complementary and reinforcing. This structure ensures the research conducted is innovative and contributes to international society, while taking full advantage of the education and research resources of the three universities and incorporating perspectives from other fields into one’s own expertise. Specifically, for the “Basic Studies in the Sustainability Research” and “Practicum and Internship” subject, faculty from the three universities will lecture jointly, and for the “Seminar and Laboratory Work for Sustainability Research subject”, faculty from the three universities will collectively provide research guidance.
- Incorporate extensive practical active learning through seminars, workshops, collaborative humanities and sciences colloquium, and internships that require collaborative work for a series of subjects in order to effectively improve practical ability in contextualizing, case studies, facilitation, etc.