Three key points

In place of conventional learning, which is divided into the sciences and humanities which they have studied up through high school, students in the Faculty of Collaborative Regional Innovation will learn knowledge and theory which will serve as the basis for collaborative regional innovation in both the humanities and sciences through the diverse curricula created by the departments and specialty courses. As such, the faculty’s over 50 member academic staff, with unique and varied research backgrounds, will teach a broad array of courses.

Transdisciplinary education at the Faculty of Collaborative Regional Innovation

The faculty’s transdisciplinary education makes maximum use of academic fields while integrating knowledge born through the application of problem-solving and thinking skills(1) and servant leadership(2) by students and stakeholders who will become a driving force in leading regional communities.

1: Problem solving and thinking skills – The abilities needed to perceive the essence of matters from multiple angles and acquire and apply specialized knowledge and a broad education based in both the humanities and sciences.
2: Servant leadership – The ability to strengthen relationships of trust between allies and stakeholders through cooperation and support.

Transdisciplinary education for regional challenges

Transdisciplinary education is an educational method which will enable students to depict the paths that will resolve challenges faced by regional communities.
Specifically, the faculty’s transdisciplinary education takes as its proposition the setting of appropriate challenges through students, faculty (scientists), and stakeholders engaged in regional challenges learning from each other in the planning stage and cooperating continuously in the problem resolution. When introducing this method, “cooperation between science and society” – in other words, the question of how to connect the problems that exist in society with science – is key, and the integration of knowledge via cooperation between students, faculty (scientists), and stakeholders is vital.
In this process of diverse cooperation, problem solving and thinking skills (the abilities needed to apply specialized knowledge and a broad-based education in both the social and natural sciences to perceive the essence of matters from a multitude of angles) and servant leadership (the abilities needed to strengthen relationships of trust between allies and stakeholders and cooperate with them by supporting them) are essential. And the ability to cooperate with diverse stakeholders while drafting measures for resolving challenges and leading distinct and unique regional communities in the creation of value for the sustainable development of those communities is what collaborative regional innovation is.
The goal of the Faculty of Collaborative Regional Innovation is to cultivate practical skills through four years’ of study, with fieldwork and internships positioned at the core of the faculty’s educational program, in order to give students these abilities.

Create your future with four diverse departments and 10 courses

Industrial Management

• Industrial Management Course
• Business Creation Course

Industrial Innovation

• Marine Products Science Course
• Paper Industry Course
• Design and Manufacturing Course

Environmental Design

• Environmental Sustainability Course
• Regional Design and Disaster Prevention Course

Regional Resource Management

• Agricultural, Mountain, and Fishing Villages Management Course
• Cultural Resource Management Course
• Sports and Health Management Course

The knowledge and theory you learn on campus will be put to practice in the local community through fieldwork and internships. As part of fieldwork, you will practice team learning by working together with local residents and students from different departments and in differing years. As part of internships, you will coordinate with various companies, organizations, and local governments in the prefecture and directly experience life in the workplace. Through such activities, you will gain the problem-solving and thinking skills and servant leadership skills, (collaborative regional innovation skills) in demand in society today.

Curriculum policy

＜Organization & Content of Curriculum＞

The Faculty of Collaborative Regional Innovation will incorporate transdisciplinary education in order to equip students with the skills required for collaborative regional innovation. As such, both problem-solving/thinking and servant leadership skills will be expected of students in this faculty, so that they may become capable individuals who will help guide regional communities in the creation of value.
The Faculty of Collaborative Regional Innovation has established the following curricula in accordance with the Diploma Policy of each department.

Curriculum overview

The Faculty of Collaborative Regional Innovation provides a learning environment where students work with regional community members. As such, the most important feature of the Faculty is fostering the ability to refine the points of view and foundations needed to work in society and become the kind of talented individuals needed by regional communities.

Career Support & Seminars

Job search activities involve building on an understanding of factors including one’s experience, skills, disposition, and lifestyle to plot a career path and realize future potential. An essential part of this process is to attain a firm grasp of how to most effectively apply the individual abilities cultivated through classes, with a focus on fieldwork and internships, in businesses and organizations. As job search activities require processes of self-analysis, industry and business research, filling out job applications, and participating in interviews and group discussions, the Faculty of Collaborative Regional Innovation provides its own seminars as well as individual and small-group courses to foster the abilities these activities demand, including self-awareness and communication skills.
We are committed to helping all students turn their dreams into reality!

Potential future careers

Diploma policy

Educational Philosophy & Objectives

The Faculty of Collaborative Regional Innovation operates with an unconventional academic framework involving research and educational development that integrates the humanities and sciences, transcending boundaries between natural and social science, as well as collaborative engagement (co-design, co-production, and co-delivery) with regional stakeholders, including policymakers and other interested parties; in other words, transdisciplinary research and education. This approach involves first the establishment of project themes and agendas to develop expertise and techniques needed to resolve individual practical challenges. It then entails ongoing collaborative study and cooperative engagement by researchers, students, and regional stakeholders for real-world application of the results thus achieved. Accordingly, Collaborative Regional Innovation Studies is dedicated to bridging ever-changing gaps between the ideal and reality through collaborative engagement between the university and regional stakeholders, guided by the concept of integrating the humanities and sciences, to resolve challenges facing regional communities and ascertain what their ideal form might be.
Its ultimate educational and research objective, in other words, is to make contributions to the sustainable development of regional communities.

Who we hope our students to become

The Faculty of Collaborative Regional Innovation aims to foster graduates who design and propose solutions to issues through collaborative engagement with a diverse range of regional stakeholders for the sake of various regional communities’ sustainable development, and who use servant leadership skills to lead such communities in creating value; in other words, people with collaborative regional innovation skills. Graduates will also be expected to stay aware of and actively interested in present and future issues, to have acquired an education and specialized knowledge across a broad range of academic fields, and to possess both practical and specialized abilities to comprehensively assess and act rooted in interdisciplinary integration of the humanities and sciences.

Learning Achievement Goals

(Knowledge and Practical Abilities)
1. The cultivation of an education and acquisition of specialized knowledge in a broad range of academic fields in the humanities and science, along with high-level practical abilities.
(Thinking and Judgment)
2. The abilities to make precise interdisciplinary considerations and comprehensive judgments in finding solutions to issues in a diverse range of fields facing regional communities.
(Interest, Concern, Motivation, and Cooperation)
3. The ability to maintain concern for issues facing regional communities of one’s own accord.
4. The motivation to lead such communities to create new value, and the ability to engage in the resolution of issues facing regional communities.
(Skills and Expression)
5. The ability to gather, organize, and analyze the information needed to resolve issues facing regional communities.
6. The ability to present the processes and results of one’s thinking and judgment to others in a way that is easy to grasp.
(Leadership)
7. The ability to demonstrate servant leadership skills in leading regional communities to resolve issues facing them.

Graduation Requirements & Degree Conferment

The Faculty of Collaborative Regional Innovation will recognize the graduation and confer a degree (Bachelor of Arts) to students who have completed the Faculty’s prescribed curriculum, satisfied minimum enrollment period requirements, acquired the prescribed number of credits in accordance with rigid grading criteria, and maintained a GPA satisfying the Faculty’s prescribed graduation requirements.