Outline of the Graduate School of Societal Safety Sciences

Name of graduate course/major
Graduate School of Societal Safety Sciences, Kansai University
・Master's Program
　Disaster Prevention and Reduction Major
・Doctoral Program
　Disaster Prevention and Reduction Major

Name of Degree
・Master’s degree (academic)
　Master of Arts and Sciences
・Doctoral degree (academic)
　Doctor of Philosophy

Admission Capacity
・Doctoral Program First Semester：15 students
・Doctoral Program Second Semester： 5 students

【　Kansai University　Graduate Schools　】

3 policies

Master's Degree Program

Admission Policy
　Kansai University widely accepts those who have the following knowledge and skills, abilities of thinking, judgement, and expression, and proactive attitudes as the students of master’s degree program according to our Diploma policy and Curriculum Policy through various entrance examinations:

1. To have acquired the specialized knowledge and skills about their academic fields during undergraduate courses.
2. To be able to think for themselves from a global perspective, smoothly communicate with others, and contribute to society by the capacities of “Think and Act” through learning during the undergraduate courses.
3. To have strong willingness to proactively study their specific academic fields.

Curriculum Policy
　Kansai University configures its curricula based on the following items in order that the students can acquire knowledge and skills, abilities of thinking, judgement, and expression, and proactive attitudes according to the Diploma Policy:

1. Educational Contents:
(1)To aim to enable the students to acquire effectively the high quality of knowledge and skills through systematic configuration of lectures, seminars, and practices.
(2) As for exercise subjects, to prepare the system that enables each student to receive careful guidance from supervising teachers in order to acquire advanced research capabilities.
(3) To provide opportunities for students to foster the ethical perspectives required for execution of research

2. Evaluation of Learning Achievements:
(1)As for evaluation of acquisition of knowledge and skills, to grasp the achievements by integrating the results of screening degree theses or research reports on the specified themes, and various researches of learning activities and achievement tests.
(2)As for evaluation of abilities of thinking, judgement, and expression, that is the power of “Think and Act” capabilities, to grasp the results of the University Competency Research in Student Assessment.
(3)As for evaluation of proactive attitudes to learn, to grasp the results of various student assessment researches.

Diploma Policy
　Kansai University awards a master’s degree to students who have and acquired the following knowledge and skills, abilities of thinking, judgement, and expression, and proactive attitudes by completing prescribed curricula in the degree programs:

1. Knowledge and Skills
To have the advanced knowledge and skills necessary for independent researchers or highly specialized professionals, and to be able to use them comprehensively.
2. Abilities of Thinking, Judgement, and Expression
To be able to think for themselves from a global perspective, to smoothly communicate with others, and to contribute to society by practicing Kansai University’s “Think and Act” academic philosophy in an advanced manner.
3. Proactive Attitudes
To be able to take responsibility for their own learning and to face proactively against problems to be solved.

Ph. D. Degree Program

Admission Policy
　Kansai University widely accepts those who have the following knowledge and skills, abilities of thinking, judgement, and expression, and proactive attitudes as the students of doctor’s degree program according to our Diploma and Curriculum Policy through various entrance examinations:

1. To have acquired the specialized knowledge and skills about their academic fields during undergraduate courses and master’s degree programs.
2. To To be able to think for themselves from a global perspective, to smoothly communicate with others, and contribute to society by the capabilities of “Think and Act” through learning during undergraduate courses and the master’s degree programs.
3. To have strong willingness to proactively study their specific academic fields.

Curriculum Policy
　Kansai University configures its curricula based on the following items in order that the students can acquire knowledge and skills, abilities of thinking, judgement, and expression, and proactive attitudes according to the Diploma Policy:

1. Educational Contents:
(1) To aim to enable the students to acquire effectively the excellent knowledge and skills through systematic configuration of lectures, seminars, and practices.
(2) As for seminars, to prepare the system that enables each student to receive careful guidance from supervising teachers in order to acquire outstanding research capabilities.
(3) To provide opportunities for students to foster the ethical perspectives required for execution of research.

2. Evaluation of Learning Achievements:
(1) As for evaluation of acquisition of knowledge and skills, to grasp the screening of the doctor’s theses, and the results of various researches of learning activities and achievement tests.
(2) As for evaluation of abilities of thinking, judgement, and expression, that is the “Think and Act” capabilities, to grasp the results of the University Competency Research in Student Assessment.
(3) As for evaluation of proactive attitudes, to grasp the results of various student assessment researches.

Diploma Policy
　Kansai University awards a doctor’s degree to the students who have acquired the following knowledge and skills, abilities of thinking, judgement, and expression, and proactive attitudes by completing prescribed curricula in the degree programs:

1. Knowledge and Skills
To have acquired outstanding knowledge and skills necessary to act as researchers or highly specialized professionals, and to be able to use them comprehensively.
2. Abilities of Thinking, Judgement, and Expression
To be able to think for themselves from a global perspective, to smoothly communicate with others, and to contribute to society by practicing Kansai University’s “Think and Act” academic philosophy in an excellent manner.
3. Proactive Attitudes
To be able to take responsibility for their own learning and to proactively act against the unsolved problems under their highly professional ethics.

Professional Degree Program

Admission Policy
　The Graduate School (Professional Degree Program) widely accepts through various entrance examinations those who have the following knowledge and skills, abilities of thinking, judgement, and expression, as well as proactive attitudes as the students according to our Diploma Policy and Curriculum Policy of the Graduate School:

1. To have acquired the specialized knowledge and skills about their academic fields during undergraduate courses.
2. To be able to think for themselves from a global perspective, smoothly communicate with others, and contribute to society by the capabilities of “Think and Act” through learning during undergraduate courses.
3. To have strong willingness to proactively study their specific academic fields.

Curriculum Policy
　The Graduate School (Professional Degree Program) configures its curricula on based the following points in order that the students can acquire knowledge and skills, abilities to think, judge, and express themselves, and proactive attitudes according to the Diploma Policy.

1. Education Content
(1) The Graduate School systematically arranges lectures, seminars, and practices in order for students to acquire practical and pragmatic knowledge and skills efficiently.
(2) The Graduate School provides subjects to acquire practical abilities based on advanced theories.
(3) The Graduate School offers opportunities to develop ethics required for high-quality professionals.

2. Evaluation of Learning Achievements
(1) The level of acquisition of knowledge and skills will be evaluated by putting together acquisition of credits, analysis of total GPA, and the results of various researches of learning activities and achievement.
(2) Abilities of thinking, judgement, and expression, that is, “Think and Act” capabilities will be evaluated by the results of the University Competency Research in Student Assessment.
(3) Proactive attitudes to learn will be evaluated by various student assessment researches.

Diploma Policy
　The Graduate School (Professional Degree Program) awards a professional’s degree to students who have acquired the following knowledge and skills, abilities of thinking,

1. Knowledge and Skills
To have acquired practical and pragmatic knowledge and skills required to act autonomously as highly specialized professionals, and to be able to use them comprehensibly.
2. Abilities of Thinking, Judgement, and Expression
Systems, to develop convincing arguments based on the norms and historical experiences, and to have acquired the “Think and Act” capabilities in order to contribute to building democratic decision making.
3. Proactive Attitudes
To be able to take responsibility for their own learning and to proactively work on facing problems to take the leadership as highly specialized.

【　Graduate School of Societal Safety Sciences　】

3 policies

Master's Degree Program

Admission Policy
　The Graduate School of Societal Safety Sciences accepts those who have the following knowledge and skills, abilities of thinking, judgement, and expression as well as proactive attitudes and deserve as the graduate school students according to the Diploma Policy and the Curriculum Policy of the Graduate School:

1. To have strong concerns for social safety and to have acquired basic specialized knowledge and skills in the field of societal safety sciences.
2. To be able to think by themselves about the problems of social safety from a global perspective, to access them from versatile viewpoints, such as law and political science, economics and business administration, sociology, psychology, physics, informatics, engineering science, labor and social medicine and so on, and to be able to contribute to society with their strong leadership.
3. To have strong willingness to implement research proactively in order to solve the various problems of social safety.

Curriculum Policy
　The Graduate School of Societal Safety Sciences configures systematically the curriculum based on the following points in order to enable students to acquire knowledge and skills, abilities of thinking, judgement, and expression, and proactive attitudes according to the Diploma Policy of the Graduate School:

1. Educational Contents:
(1) The Graduate School configures its curriculum focused on acquiring a broad range of knowledge not only on their own specialized field but also on the whole fields of societal safety science and systemizes the subjects under the three categories of Humanities System, Social System and Science and Engineering System, respectively.
(2) Students will acquire a high level of research ability, not only through guidance on their specialized field in seminars conducted by academic advisors, but also by receiving a variety of lectures and suggestions in selective subjects.
(3) Students will acquire the skills to adequately understand, write and express in more than one foreign language in addition to Japanese in seminars conducted by academic advisors
(4) Interdisciplinary academic guidance is provided by both one main teacher in charge and two vice-teachers in charge from the different fields.

2. Evaluation of Learning Achievements:
(1) The “master thesis intermediate presentation meeting” is held every year in which all students make an oral presentation in front of all full-time teachers for recognizing progress and contents of research on their master thesis.
(2) All master theses are examined by a total of three examiners ‘one chief examiner and two sub-examiners’, and students will submit their final version by reflecting guidance of the examiners.
(3) Oral examination and “master thesis presentation meeting” are held and students who have satisfied with the evaluation criteria of the Graduate School are deemed as qualified.

Diploma Policy
　The Graduate School of Societal Safety Sciences ( the Master’s Degree Program) awards the master’s degree to those who have completed the prescribed curriculum and have acquired the following knowledge and skills, abilities to think, judge and express themselves as well as proactive attitudes:

1. Knowledge and Skills
Students can not only analyze the current situation in a multifaceted manner in order to create a safe and secure society, but also make use of high levels of expertise required for creating a new theory by inheriting and developing the existing ones.
2. Students have practical and specialized abilities not only to assess the risk of disasters and accidents quantitatively from the viewpoint of natural science and engineering, but also to develop a method to assess the risk more comprehensively by qualitative assessment from the viewpoint of social sciences and propose and plan policies in order to achieve a safe and secure society with the high level of the “Think and Act” capabilities.
3. Proactive Attitudes
Students can carefully observe a variety of information related to social safety studies to find issues and proactively cope with them to give solutions.

Ph. D. Degree Program

Admission Policy
　The Graduate School of Societal Safety Sciences accepts those who have the following knowledge and skills, capacities and abilities, and proactive attitudes and deserve as the graduate school students according to the Diploma Policy and the Curriculum Policy of the Graduate School:

1. To have strong concerns for the problems of social safety and to have acquired expertise and skills in the field of societal safety sciences. 2. To be able to think by themselves about the problems of social safety from a global perspective, to access them from versatile standpoints such as law and political science, economics and business administration, sociology, psychology, physics, informatics, engineering science, labor and social medicine and so on, and to be able to create new academic field of societal safety science, and to contribute to society through creation of new theories and policy proposals for disaster prevention and reduction. 3. To have strong willingness to tackle with research proactively in order to solve the various problems of social safety.

Curriculum Policy
　The Graduate School of Societal Safety Sciences configures essential subjects systematically in the curriculum based on the following points in order to enable students to acquire knowledge and skills, capacities and abilities as well as attitudes according to the Diploma Policy of the Graduate School:

1. Educational Contents:
(1) The Graduate School configures its curriculum focused on fostering specialized researchers and highly-qualified professionals in the field of societal safety sciences and systemizes the subjects under the three categories of Humanities System, Social System and Science and Engineering System, respectively.
(2) Students will acquire an outstanding level of research ability, not only through guidance on their specialized field in seminars conducted by academic advisors, but also by receiving a variety of lectures and suggestions in selective subjects.
(3) Students will acquire the skills to adequately understand, write and express in more than one foreign language in addition to Japanese and also acquire the skills to communicate and make presentation in seminars conducted by academic advisors.

2. Evaluation of Learning Achievements:
(1) The “doctoral thesis intermediate presentation meeting” is held twice in which all students make an oral presentation in front of all full-time teachers for recognizing progress and contents of research on their doctoral thesis.
(2) All doctoral theses are examined by three examiners ‘one chief examiner and two sub-examiners’, and students will submit their final version by reflecting their guidance.
(3) After the oral examination students who have satisfied with the evaluation criteria of the Graduate School are deemed as qualified.
(4) The substance of the doctoral thesis shall be presented and discussed at a public hearing.

Diploma Policy
　The Graduate School of Societal Safety Sciences (the Ph.D. Degree Program) awards the Ph.D. degree to those who have completed the prescribed curriculum and have acquired the following knowledge and skills, capacities and abilities, as well as proactive attitudes:

1. Knowledge and Skills
Students can not only analyze the current situation in a multifaceted manner in order to create a safe and secure society, but also have outstanding expertise required for creating a new theory by inheriting and developing the existing ones.
2. Abilities of Thinking, Judgement, and Expression
Students have autonomous research abilities in the field of societal safety science and can create theories and propose policies with the outstanding capabilities of “Think and Act”.
3. Proactive Attitudes
Students can carefully observe a variety of information related to societal safety studies to find issues and deal with them in a proactive manner to give solutions with high professional ethics.

Connection with other faculties/graduate schools

Relationship with the Faculty of Societal Safety Sciences
　In the Faculty of Societal Safety Sciences, students aim to learn, in a practical manner: the basics/foundation of evaluation methods of science and engineering regarding risk of disasters and accidents; knowledge about basic theories regarding disaster prevention/disaster mitigation and risk communication and risk management and apply such theories to actual society; and legal and management systems, through lectures, practical training, and seminars.
　In contrast, the Doctoral Program First Semester of the Graduate School of Societal Safety Sciences is aimed at developing experts that have research abilities to suggest policies and design systems to realize a safe and secure society not only by quantitatively evaluating the risk of disasters and accidents using science and engineering methods, but also adding qualitative evaluation utilizing the social sciences. Additionally, in Doctoral Program Second Semester, the Graduate School is aimed at developing human resources that have specialized research capabilities to be able to contribute to creating theories and suggesting policies for realizing disaster prevention/disaster mitigation, in order to cope with natural disasters and man-made disasters that threaten the lives of people, through interdisciplinary research in specialized fields that go beyond the borders of humanities and science.

Connection with other faculties/graduate schools
　In Kansai University, in addition to the three professional graduate schools (Graduate School of Law, Graduate School of Accountancy, Graduate School of Psychology, Major in Professional Clinical Psychology), there are other graduate courses established for Law, Literature, Economics, Business and Commerce, Sociology, Integrated Information Science, Science and Engineering, Foreign Language Studies, Psychology, East Asian Culture, Governance, and Health and Well-being. Almost all of such graduate courses are related to the Graduate School of Societal Safety Sciences. Additionally, the Graduate School of Societal Safety Sciences is connected to these graduate courses and departments as they form the basis of the graduate courses of the Graduate School of Societal Safety Sciences. Furthermore, the graduate and undergraduate courses are linked to the Institute of Legal Studies, the Institute of Economic and Political Studies, and the Organization for Research and Development of Innovative Science Technology.