Master in Bildung

The Graduate School of Education (Master's Course) consists of two majors: Professional Teacher Development and School Education Support.

The Major in Professional Teacher Development aims to train school leaders and mid-career teachers in advanced theory as well as practical and applicable skills, while also fostering competent young teachers.

The major in School Education Support consists of two courses: Clinical Psychology in Education and Japanese Language Support. The Clinical Psychology in Education Course trains specialists of education for children with mental health problems or disabilities through courses on educational psychology, clinical psychology, and special needs education. The Japanese Language Support Course cultivates professionals who have the capacities to provide 1) learners support for children with international background in Japan, and also 2) Japanese language education support for children who are living abroad. Moreover, the course focuses on training skills for supporting foreigners and promoting international exchanges in both Japan and overseas.

The University of Miyazaki took an important step forward in April 2016 by opening our new Faculty of Regional Innovation. This addition brought our total number of faculties to five, along with our faculties of Agriculture, Education, Engineering, and Medicine. The new faculty will span a range of different disciplines, including the humanities and social sciences as well as agriculture and engineering. In bringing together faculty members specializing in both the humanities and sciences, the Faculty of Regional Innovation will aim to provide education of practical value that also optimally utilizes the resources of our region.

A task for us as we move forward will be to specialize university functions while also enhancing individualization. Simply put, we need to bring out the distinctive qualities of the University of Miyazaki--as encapsulated in our slogan: Look at the World, Start with the Community. Examples of how the University of Miyazaki is enhancing its specialization and individuality can be seen in our Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Agriculture and Engineering, our Graduate School of Education, and our Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine. In those and other cases we are bringing together different academic disciplines to forge innovative new research and educational initiatives, while also building the networks needed to meet the needs of local communities. We continue to demonstrate our unique qualities as a university by advancing research in our core disciplines, which include life sciences, environmental science, food science, and energy science.

The University of Miyazaki has been earning praise from outside observers for our approach to fostering leading young researchers. In this area, we have introduced the Organization for Promotion of Tenure Track (OPTT) system that offers young researchers mentoring by three "troika supporters," with an eye to developing researchers into tenured professors at UoM. We will also be stepping up our efforts to provide greater career opportunities for women across the university, including both students and faculty members, through the creation of a new human resources organization dedicated to fostering activities and career opportunities for women on campus.