About ILAS

Role of the Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Primary work of the Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Serving as headquarters for planning, devising, conducting, and evaluating liberal arts and sciences education at Nagoya University, the Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences is responsible for managing liberal arts and sciences education.

  • Develop curriculum and guidelines for liberal arts and sciences
  • General administration of faculty registered at Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences
  • Design liberal arts and sciences program and create organizations to carry it out
  • Manage and operate liberal arts and sciences education
  • Evaluate curriculum and instruction
  • Promote cooperation between departments
  • Provide educational support and maintain, improve educational quality
  • Create a learning environment

System for conducting liberal arts and sciences education

The departments are responsible for specific liberal arts and sciences courses, and all faculty ranked as lecturers or above are equally allotted teaching responsibilities. The following principles have been established to smoothly promote liberal arts and sciences education at each school.

The liberal arts and sciences education system is based on the following:

  • Full university participation based on effective numbers of educators on hand
  • Fair allocation of responsibilities
  • Clearly established departmental responsibilities and assistance to be provided by other units
  • Evaluation of contributions to liberal arts and sciences education

The executive organization was created based on the policies outlined below.

  • Nagoya University faculty members ranked as lecturers or above are assigned to one of eleven groups, centered on a department or school.
  • For each group, the number of educators that can be effectively used for liberal arts and sciences education is calculated. This becomes the quantitative basis for each group's responsibilities for liberal arts and sciences.
  • Members working solely at the University Hospital and faculty involved in clinical work at the School of Medicine are not included in the calculation of numbers of faculty members that can be effectively used in liberal arts and sciences education. At research centers and labs, the number available is calculated as one-half the number of faculty members.
  • The numbers of basic courses in the humanities and sciences and liberal education courses that each group is responsible for are set after taking into consideration the number of faculty members available and number of who can teach the courses.
  • The number of first year seminars each teacher will lead is determined by proportionally allocating courses to all available faculty members in the group, with adjustments made to balance responsibilities among the groups.
  • Funds needed to cover expenses related to cooperating with liberal arts and sciences education are distributed to the groups according to the contributions each makes to the liberal arts and sciences education.

The Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences and liberal arts and sciences education

The Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences and liberal arts and sciences education