Diploma and Curriculum Policies of the Faculty of Literature and Social Sciences

Diploma Policy

The Faculty of Literature and Social Sciences develops people with wide culture and rich humanity as well as high communication skills and a wide perspective who can address various problems of modern society and local communities.

The holder of a bachelor's degree from the faculty:

Can express himself or herself and transmit own thoughts in a manner good enough for basic communication as a member of society,
Has wide culture, the basics of expert and academic thinking and the basic ability to contribute to cultural and public activities in society,
Has career consciousness and can see things in an independent and critical manner, and
Is creative and rich in humanity and has abilities to contribute to realizing a vibrant society.

Curriculum Policy

For students to acquire these abilities, the Faculty of Literature and Social Sciences compiles its curriculum on the basis of the following policy:

The faculty cultivates students' basic ability to communicate needed as members of society and global communication ability including intercultural understanding, and an attitude to voluntarily study.
The faculty gives education appropriate for an intellectual base for literature and social sciences by offering a systematic and academic construction of disciplines and strict performance assessment.
The faculty heightens students' career consciousness and lets them develop skills of seeing things, which form the foundation of future social activities.
The faculty implements quality education through a seamless effort to improve educational methods in addition to elaborate, small-group teaching and student evaluation of lectures.

Department of Human Sciences and Cultural Studies

Diploma Policy

The Department of Human Sciences and Cultural Studies offers 12 specialties covering most of the human sciences and cultural fields in two educational courses: Cultural Systems and Social System. Students belong to one of the 12 specialty courses, study specified disciplines, compile their academic results in a baccalaureate thesis and receive a bachelor's degree in literature. In conferring a bachelor's degree, the department emphasizes the following points in order to ascertain if baccalaureate candidates have acquired knowledge and skills appropriate for bachelors:

Information literacy and the ability to express self as the basic skills needed to fully use their individual interest in problems in society
Well-harmonized knowledge of human beings, society and nature as well as systematic expertise on varied cultural activities of human beings in the perspective of respective specialties
An inquisitive spirit to find unique research problems and solve them
Strong eagerness and responsibility to understand the social background and role of university study and to use their academic achievements in critically assessing and developing society's cultural activities
The ability to recognize own position, responsibility and role in society through interaction with people in various fields and think about own profession

Curriculum Policy

Students' utterances and discussions are emphasized in order to foster the abundant ability to express themselves in their voluntary, active study.
The department classifies subjects by objective and learning stage for effective mastering of foreign language skills and allows the transfer of credits for students who study at an overseas university with which Yamagata University has an international exchange agreement.
On top of the core subjects and general subjects of foundation education, the department offers evolving subjects that show the diversity of study on human cultures for harmonized education. It also allows students to take subjects of other specialties as free subjects.
Subjects are properly classified for the systematic acquisition of expert knowledge and course models are provided as a guide.
The department continues improving its guidance and advice framework that can deal with varied interests and situations of students and is making efforts to improve educational methods to accommodate student requests and make student performance assessment more rigorous.
The department provides solid thesis tutoring, either individually or by specialty, as a place for students to develop a creative spirit of inquiry and deepen their understanding of academic standing and social significance of their own studies.
The department offers subjects that incorporate topics concerning career development and activities in the local community to help students' future plans based on their recognition of their position, responsibility and role in society.

Department of Law,　Economics and Public Policy

Educational Goals

The curriculum of the Department of Law, Economics and Public Policy consists of the three courses of Law, Economics and Business Management, and Public Policy. It aims at cultivating in students the ability to address various problems facing modern society through studying of law, economics, business administration and other social sciences for deeper expertise.

Curriculum Policy

In foundation education and common subjects of the faculty students take from the first year, they understand the meaning of studying at university and methods of learning and obtain fundamental communication and information processing skills. They also acquire wide culture and norms necessary for civic life and an insight into society, while the department provides a venue for thinking about their life plans.
Common subjects of the department from the first year include those for learning about various fields of social sciences and acquiring basic methods of studying specialties. The core specialty subjects introduce various specialty fields for each of the three courses and students select a course at the end of the first year. The basic specialty subject offered for the first semester of the second year (basic specialty seminar on law and economic policy) lets students learn basic knowledge of specialties and obtain skills to carry out research on their own through small-group education using rudimentary documents and material on social sciences.
Students explore future career paths by taking career education subjects among the faculty's common subjects. Through foundation education and specialty education, they acquire basic skills as a professional who can play active roles in various aspects of society.
For specialty education from the second year, the courses provide respective curricula compiled under the policies mentioned below:

Law

Diploma Policy

The course develops students' advanced judgment and problem solving ability to suitably and flexibly deal with varied legal issues by finding problems arising from various phenomena of modern society and examining them from a legal point of view in the light of their political, social and historical backgrounds. Students also foster the ability to tackle public issues in the future through voluntary participation in society as sensible and responsible members of society.

The course confers a bachelor's degree in law on students who have acquired prescribed academic credits upon achieving the following results:

Expertise based on the systematicity of law on top of wide and deep culture
An interest in complex and varied problems of society and the ability to ponder them from a legal viewpoint to present the direction of solution of such problems
The ability to collect and accurately analyze various information, formulate own views and convey them to other people persuasively while exchanging opinions with others
The ability to become a professional with flexibility to play an active part in various situations and contribute to society on the basis of expert knowledge on law and society
The ability to voluntarily address social and public issues in order to achieve a just society on the basis of the healthy common sense of citizens while respecting self and others

Curriculum Policy

In the fields of public law, criminal law and civil law in specialty education, students first study introductory subjects for the basic theory of law. On top of such basic knowledge, students study evolving subjects in respective fields to acquire legal knowledge based on the systematicity of law. They also study the historical and social backgrounds of law and the theory of law from various subjects to obtain wide culture and expertise that can be applied in a variety of situations. They can also take politics, economics and business administration subjects. Further, they belong to a seminar in the field of their interest to seek on their own how to solve varying legal problems of society through the collection and analysis of literature and discussions with teachers and other students and cultivate the ability to organize own views and convey them logically.

Economics and Business Management

Diploma Policy

In this course, students study economics, business administration, economic policy and their history and present situations. The objective of the course is to develop people who have the ability to weigh multiple solutions to economic, managerial and policy issues facing modern society, an insight into the direction of problem solving and the policymaking capability.

The course awards a bachelor's degree in economics to students who have obtained the prescribed credits upon accomplishing the following academic results:

The acquisition of wide and deep culture through foundation education, communication skills and knowledge and abilities useful for the practice of study
A basic knowledge of social sciences, centering on economics or business administration
The abilities to keep interested in economic, managerial and policy issues of modern society, logically analyze them and propose their solutions
The acquisition of flexible capabilities as a professional to play active roles on various scenes on the basis of expertise on economics or business administration in order to contribute to building a rich and healthy society
The acquisition of wide culture and norms necessary for civic life from the aspect of economic activities of human beings, an insight into society and the ability to fulfill social responsibilities as a citizen

Curriculum Policy

Students acquire basic knowledge and the way of thinking by studying basic specialty subjects in economics and business administration. They further study applied specialty subjects to cultivate the ability to understand real-life economic and business management phenomena and basic skills for problem solving. From the third year onward, they select a specialty seminar of their interest, learn further advanced expertise through small-group education and acquire the ability to find and analyze problems logically and convey the result accurately. Students can also take law and politics subjects. Through such learning, they develop problem solving skills and the abilities to logically consider and discuss economic, business administrative and policy issues facing modern society on the basis of the basic knowledge of social sciences centering on economics and business management.

Public Policy

Diploma Policy

Public Policy is an academic field to deal with how society should address and solve its problems. Students study basic social science subjects like law, politics, economics and business administration in a well-balanced manner and cultivate the ability to understand and analyze modern society's various problems from a public point of view on the basis of wide knowledge of social sciences. The course also aims at fostering people who can tackle problems of local communities through practical activities.

The course confers a bachelor's degree in policy science on students who have acquired the prescribed credits upon accomplishing the following academic results:

Comprehensive understanding of basic knowledge of law, politics, economics and business administration in addition to wide culture
The abilities to find problems of modern society, logically analyze them from the viewpoint of social sciences and work out a policy to solve them
An attitude to contribute to society through practical activities in local communities
Communication skills to convey own opinions while exchanging views with other people and flexible capabilities as a professional to deal with a wide variety of situations on the basis of social science expertise
The abilities to support a free, democratic society as a citizen and voluntarily and proactively address improving it from a public viewpoint

Curriculum Policy

By studying core subjects of law, politics, economics and business administration, students obtain basic knowledge and the way of thinking. They then take evolving subjects to acquire expertise necessary for finding problems and considering solutions. From the third year onward, they belong to a seminar of their interested field to develop logical thinking, communication skills and the ability to find various problems of society from a public point of view. They can also join a seminar whose students participate in community development and activities and a lecture that discusses the current situation and problems of communities and community administration. Through such education, students cultivate the practical ability to address problems by considering the actual situation of society to contribute to it voluntarily.