Explore ICU's global learning environment through keywords
This study aboard program allows students to earn a bachelor's degree from ICU and earn a master's degree from graduate school of Middlebury College, the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS), in a total of approximately five years.
ICU offers a fully bilingual education in Japanese and English so that students can develop skills to write academic papers and discuss in both languages. As bilingualism has penetrated into classrooms and administration offices, items on campus bulletin boards are posted in Japanese and English.
To ensure education that respects each of the students who have different languages, nationalities, and cultural backgrounds, the CTL works on improving faculty's classes and provides students with learning support in various forms including curriculum consultation.
Dialogue is at the foundation of ICU's liberal arts education. Dialogue with people with different backgrounds and values will enable you to develop open values free from stereotypes and discover a new world and a new you.
The ELA is the first-year introductory program to foster the ability to think, dialogue, and communicate in English. By using English in a practical manner in small-size classes, students will develop their skills in critical, creative, and independent thinking, which are the foundation of learning at ICU.
All employment of faculty members is based on open international recruitment. The ratio of foreign faculty members is always high, above 30%. Approximately 90% of Japanese faculty members received their degrees from overseas universities, or have more than one year's experience in education or academic research at foreign institutions. These international faculty members realize ICU's world-class education.
Through the membership of the Global Liberal Arts Alliance (GLAA), an organization of 30 liberal arts educational institutions from 18 countries around the world, and collaboration with other colleges and universities, ICU is further expanding learning opportunities beyond national borders and study abroad options.
Since its founding, all new students have signed ICU's Student Pledge to spend their ICU days abiding by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. ICU joined the United Nations Global Compact*1 in 2009, and the United Nations Academic Impact*2 in 2017, pursuing activities to realize a society free from human rights violations.
*1 A global framework created to realize sustainable growth and actions
*2 A global initiative that aligns the United Nations with
institutions of higher education around the world
Embracing a supranational perspective, ICU is dedicated to promoting international exchange of people and educational opportunities. More than half of ICU students study abroad before graduation through a wide variety of international programs they can choose according to their learning objectives and plans, expanding their own potential.
To ensure Japanese-English bilingualism, ICU has been committed to Japanese language education since its founding. The Japanese Language Programs (JLP) provide two courses: Japanese as a Foreign Language and Japanese as a First/Heritage Language. Students enroll in either course to develop the Japanese language proficiency necessary on and off campus and academic skills in Japanese.
Learning in liberal arts enables students to educate themselves across wide-ranging academic disciplines and organically integrate their knowledge to find new perspectives. In the ever-changing world, liberal arts foster the ability to address interdisciplinary and complex issues, which cannot be dealt with in the existing academic framework.
自然豊かなキャンパス内に位置する学生寮は、共同生活における「対話」を通じて、多様性の尊重や責任の共有、分担を学ぶ「教育寮」です。全学生の約3割が寮生活を送り、世界各地から集う学生と共に暮らしています。
ICU dormitories, located on a campus in rich natural surroundings, are a place of education where students learn about respecting diversity and sharing and assigning responsibilities through dialogue while living together in a community. Approximately 30% of all ICU students live in dormitories together with students from all over the world.
At ICU's leafy campus, 13 times larger than Tokyo Dome, students from different backgrounds develop a rich sense of humanity through interactions with each other. Days on the vast campus play an important role in achieving ICU's aim of the overall development of humanity and mature individuality.
The richly diverse campus is full of encounters with different values in everyday life. Repeated dialogue on campus will provide you with new awareness and opportunities to discover a new you.
Based on Christian ideals, ICU aims at cultivating promising individuals who serve God and humankind and make contributions to lasting peace. To this end, the university has long been pursuing peace studies and developing individuals who can work with people around the world to contribute to world peace.
Critical thinking forms the basis of liberal arts. It is the mindset of not accepting information as it is, but thinking about it creatively and critically. ICU values the attitude of constantly raising and asking questions free from stereotypes.
ICU has ranked high in university rankings not only in Japan but also in the world in terms of such evaluation items as internationality, education, and cultivating global human resources.
Service-Learning programs allow students to experience volunteer work off campus and apply their classroom learning to the real world. International Service-Learning is also available, which provides students with an opportunity to go to Southeast Asian countries and India to engage in activities at local NGOs and public institutions.
In 2014, ICU was selected for the Top Global University Project, a funding project of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), thanks to its efforts as the nation's first liberal arts college to lead the internationalization of universities in Japan. Aiming at further embodying its educational philosophy, ICU has been promoting global liberal arts education.
ICU has adopted various admission systems to welcome all students from Japan and abroad. The Universal Admissions launched in 2017 provide enhanced admissions for applicants who studied in foreign educational systems, promoting the acceptance of more diverse students than ever.
ICU has been establishing an environment to fulfill its three visions for education: (1) to be a university where each person's potential is brought to fruition, (2) to be a university where each person discovers his or her calling, and (3) to be a university that continues to mature as it pursues its ideals.
To develop writing skills in ICU, students learn the basics of academic writing from the first year. Further, after learning field-specific writing skills in specialized courses, all students write mandatory senior theses in the fourth year. Tutorial support is also available for writing theses and papers.
ICU students have a variety of extracurricular options in the cultural and sports fields. Students autonomously and actively engage in club activities. With the participation of many students with foreign citizenship, these activities help students interact with and inspire each other in situations other than classes to gain new understandings.
Liberal arts education enables students to take the initiative in learning according to their fields of interest transcending disciplinary boundaries. Through education that reflects ICU's policy of respecting each student as a unique individual, your potential will be brought to fruition.
ICU provides various forms of learning through its liberal arts courses, major system, and study abroad programs. The possibilities brought about by such learning are infinite. All experiences at ICU will unlimitedly expand the career path and life of each student.