1. YNU
  2. Education
  3. Educational Policy
  4. Policy on Graduation Approval and Granting Degrees (Diploma Policy)

Policy on Graduation Approval and Granting Degrees (Diploma Policy)

Human Resources YNU Fosters

Innovative individuals who contribute to solving the issues faced by Japanese society from an international perspective

  • Human resources who contribute from an international perspective and can deal with diversity including non-Japanese social systems, cultures, religions, and customs in the new global age of the 21st century, when Japanese companies are expanding further overseas
  • Innovative human resources who generate and disseminate new knowledge to the rest of the world, including creation of new value and technological innovation
  • Individuals with practical talents who draw on YNU’s traditional strengths and distinctive character to contribute to solving the local and global issues faced by Japanese society. Such individuals focus their efforts in the international city of Yokohama and in Kanagawa Prefecture, areas at the forefront of innovation where global companies cluster
  • Teachers with practical talents who can solve the issues faced in school-based education and align themselves with the way pupils think to guide them toward deeper learning

Policy on Graduation Approval and Granting Degrees

YNU stipulates four types of practical knowledge and skills as learning outcomes (necessary attributes or skills) to be acquired by students before it approves their graduation and grants their degrees, as follows:

  • Expertise and familiarity with the liberal arts enabling students to take up challenges on the world stage, having gained a wealth of intellectual assets in the arts and sciences and acquired the broad specialist expertise and the versatile ability to apply knowledge that is required in the new global age
  • Intellect to pursue interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary scholarship from both global and local viewpoints, thereby generating new knowledge and leading the way toward solving problems
  • Communicative proficiency to deal with diversity including non-Japanese social systems, cultures, religions, and customs, and to contribute to developing an inclusive community from an international perspective
  • Strength of character to survive independently in an unpredictable and rapidly changing era. Such strength of character should be grounded in strong motivation and a sense of responsibility with regard to solving the issues faced by society, as well as a universal sense of ethics

Standards for Graduation Approval and Granting Degrees

Standards for graduation approval

YNU approves the graduation of students registered at the university for a term of study lasting four years or more who complete the courses and number of credits stipulated by their college (relating to an educational program granting a bachelor’s degree) and who pass their college’s prescribed graduation review process, having achieved a GPA (Grade Point Average) of 2.0 or higher in courses required for graduation.

Furthermore, YNU may approve the graduation of students registered at the university for three years or more who pass their college’s prescribed graduation review process, having completed the courses and number of credits stipulated by their college with exceptional grades (including individuals designated by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology).

Standards for granting degrees

Students who graduate from YNU are granted a bachelor’s degree. The relevant majors are included in the names of bachelor’s degrees, as follows:

  • College of Education   Bachelor of Education
  • College of Economics   Bachelor of Economics
  • College of Business Administration   Bachelor of Business Administration
  • College of Engineering Science   Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Engineering
  • College of Urban Sciences   Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Engineering,or Bachelor of Environmental Science

Learning outcome goals

YNU stipulates four types of practical knowledge and skills as learning outcome goals to be achieved by students before it approves their graduation and grants their bachelor’s degrees; the university aims to help students accomplish these goals.

Expertise and familiarity with the liberal arts

  • Fundamental expertise in a field of specialization
  • Broad familiarity with the liberal arts enabling the student to make connections across the social, cultural, and natural realms
  • The profound insight required in the new global age

Intellect

  • Capacity for logical thinking that can devise effective processes for problem solving from both global and local viewpoints and put those processes into practice
  • Capacity for critical thinking that challenges existing frameworks of understanding
  • Capacity for creative thinking that pursues interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary scholarship to generate new knowledge

Communicative proficiency

  • Receptiveness unhampered by bias or prejudice, enabling understanding of another’s thoughts and feelings
  • Capacity for self-expression enabling appropriate communication of one’s own opinion in response to the opinions of another or the situation in which one is placed
  • Leadership skills that facilitate collaboration with a diverse range of people to solve problems

Sense of ethics and responsibility

  • Strong motivation and a sense of responsibility enabling independent participation in society to solve the issues it faces
  • Strong sense of ethics based on the way human behavior should be when one considers more than just narrowly construed personal interest
  • Commitment to lifelong learning combined with the strength of character to survive independently in the new global age

(Educational Affairs Division)