梅光学院大学

Graduate School (Graduate Courses of Literature)

We offer courses taught by eminent professors who have stood foremost in their fields in the scholarly world. Students can gain extensive knowledge from each small-scale professional class. Our graduate school has produced many scholars, university professors, and teachers in junior high and senior high schools.

BRIEF BACKGROUND OF GRADUATE SCHOOL

　Baiko Gakuin established master's degree programs in Japanese Literature and English and American Literature in 1976, 10 years after the university was founded. In 1978, we established Ph.D. programs in each literature department. Baiko Gakuin was the first women's university to confer these degrees in the western part of Japan.
　Our graduate school's beliefs are rooted in character-building based on principles of Christianity, and we offer courses in Japanese Literature, Japanese Linguistics, English and American Literature, English Linguistics and Teaching English for Children. One of our classes' characteristics is that students can take classes taught by eminent professors who have stood foremost in the scholarly world, and students can gain extensive knowledge from each small-scale professional class.
　 We have produced many scholars, universities' professors, teachers in junior high and senior high schools, curators, and librarians. Some graduates work in general companies.

For training teachers to have a good ability to cope with any teaching situation

•Our graduate school offers courses for the teaching profession in its master's degree curricula. The purpose is to produce talented people who have good knowledge and teaching skills so that they can cope with any teaching situation they might face. At the same time, we prepare students to pass the examination for teachers' jobs; this examination is much harder to pass nowadays because of the declining birthrate.
•Based on the factors above, we have set up three academic programs:

1)Master's Degree in Literature
Students are required to take more than 32 hours of credits from classes in their major. In addition to receiving a master's degree, students who already have a teaching license can receive a special license of teaching when they graduate from this program.

2)Master's Degree in Education
Students in this course are required to take more than 32 hours of credits in classes of their major and teaching classes. If students turn in a thesis about educational teaching materials and methods and they pass an examination, they can receive a master's degree. In addition to the master's degree, students who already have a teaching license can receive a special license of teaching when they graduate from this program.

3)Teaching Certificate Program (Students in this course cannot receive a master's degree.)
Students in this course are required to take more than 30 hours of credits from classes in their major and teaching classes. Students would receive a teaching certificate. In addition to this certificate, students who already have a teaching license can receive a special license of teaching. The tuition fee of this course is half the price of the master's degree programs listed above.

Available Licenses
　•Japanese / Special licenses for Teaching in Junior High and Senior High Schools
　•English / Special licenses for Teaching in Junior High and Senior High Schools

•Students can receive a master's degree after they take more than 32 hours of credits, 　turn in a thesis and pass an examination. After receiving a master's degree and taking their chief examiner's classes and guidance for a doctoral dissertation, students qualify to submit a dissertation to the graduate school. If students pass an oral examination, they can receive a doctorate.
•The number of students who have received Ph. D. 's from our graduate school has 　reached 24 since the program was founded in 1978.