Attractiveness of Teaching at ICU

The faculty at ICU are dedicated teachers and scholars who enjoy working together in a culturally diverse academic community. We have a strong tradition of respecting academic freedom and human rights, and we expect our students to become responsible global citizens. We are a Christian university, but the curriculum is secular and a large majority of our students are not Christian. In teaching, our foremost goals are to train students to think critically, to encourage them to make reasonable judgments as individuals and to help prepare them to lead meaningful, responsible lives.

The university is bilingual, with most courses offered either in Japanese or English. Most students are native or near native speakers in one of those languages and they study the other extensively as a second (or sometimes third) language. Interactions between students of different language backgrounds, both in and out of the classroom, contribute to a lived experience of cultural and linguistic diversity, and negotiating these differences on a daily basis leads to a culture of acceptance. Non-Japanese faculty often have some level of Japanese language ability, but even those with limited Japanese can get by because much of what the university does is written or expressed in two languages.

Faculty who have just joined ICU participate in a New Faculty Development Program that provides an orientation to the university and fosters a shared understanding of its history, culture and goals. The program helps to ease new faculty into life at ICU, and most faculty in tenured or tenure-track positions are also assigned a mentor who will help them adapt to the university and negotiate the clearly-defined tenure and promotion system.

Faculty in the College of Liberal Arts teach courses that include broad General Education courses, introductory and advanced undergraduate courses, and graduate level courses. The students expect -- and respond well to -- interactive teaching , and their open-minded, inquisitive attitude promotes a rewarding teaching experience. Although the university is primarily oriented toward providing a high quality liberal arts education to undergraduates, research is also important. The university has a system of sabbatical leaves for full-time faculty, faculty are encouraged to apply for research funding from the Japanese government (grant applications can be written in Japanese or English), and the university hosts several research institutes that promote individual or collaborative research projects. The interaction between research and teaching strengthens both, and enlivens intellectual life at ICU.

Robert Eskildsen
Vice President for Academic Affairs