Every Day is “Global” at ICU.

Global ICU

University System Promoting Globalization

The entire system at ICU is geared toward promoting global human resource development.

For a university that from the outset has reached out beyond national confines, the promotion of globalization is the very raison d'etre of ICU. Through improvements to the international educational exchange system, raising the global educational level of teaching staff and deploying staff to provide additional support, ICU has been able to achieve true globalization on its campus.

International Educational Exchange Office

Carrying out international educational exchange is a basic policy for the entire university.

Since implementing international educational exchange is a fundamental policy of the whole university, the section responsible for the Student Exchange program is the Administrative Affairs department, which is in direct contact with the university president and vice president. As a result, administrative staff and faculty are able to engage directly in a lively exchange of views, which means that procedures related to international educational exchange are characterized by great flexibility.

Improving Global Education of Teachers

More than 70% of faculty have degrees at overseas universities.

At ICU, about 90% of faculty at associate professor level and above have PhDs, and of those over 70% have degrees at overseas universities. Even among faculty with PhDs from Japanese universities, almost all of them have experience of having been engaged for some time at universities abroad. In addition, practically all the faculty responsible for the English Liberal Arts program and Japanese-language education program (full-time lecturers) have experience of having taught in a foreign language at an overseas university.

All employment of faculty is based upon open international recruitment. A sabbatical system has been established to ensure that after recruitment, faculty have the time and opportunity to devote to research. As part of this system, many members of the teaching staff work as visiting researchers at institutes of higher education overseas, and in this way they play a role in enhancing the globalized character of the educational system at ICU.

Staffing to Support Globalization

Deployment of bilingual staff in all departments.

All departments feature staff with English-language skills or who have studied abroad, and all business matters can be conducted in either English or Japanese. Lecturers and students from overseas are thus able to receive full linguistic support.

A prerequisite for all potential staff at ICU is achieving a score of at least 750 in the TOEIC English proficiency test. Furthermore, language-training programs at outside institutions are offered to any interested staff members. So that staff can go beyond national and cultural backgrounds in communicating with students and faculty, ICU puts considerable effort into training staff who can deal appropriately with discussions and negotiations with overseas universities.

actionplan010.png
Lena E. Burghardt
Graduated from the College of Liberal Arts in June 2012, works for a publishing company

Friendly Atmosphere and People Know You by Name

Compared with other universities in Japan where I've studied, the relationship between faculty and staff at ICU is surprisingly close and friendly. When you go to the university offce to deal with various procedures related to being an international student, the members of staff have taken the trouble to remember your name--and it's such a delight to receive a personal greeting. Completely regardless of nationality, gender or personal background, there's an attitude of accepting all students, and that creates a pleasant environment for exchange students. On top of it all, the lively exchange of opinions makes for a very stimulating daily life.