School of Human Science and Environment, University of Hyogo
SHSE was founded to encourage new lifestyles and new ways of thinking to bring humanity in closer harmony with the environment. These new lifestyles and new ways of thinking include understanding of different cultures and international situations to get along with the earth and creatively correspond to the problems of the environment. University of Hyogo is a university with a commitment to contribute to the progress of our countries' science, technology, and community.
Basic Educational Philosophy
SHSE is a new school which deals with the new idea of harmonizing the technical study of life science, social building, etc. with the policy study related to environmental policy based on human study. The English name of this school, "School of Human Science and Environment" attempts to explain this concept of harmonizing "Human Science" and "Environment" based on Humanity. The school organizes major fields of study based on the ideas of communication among living beings, social systems, and culture in the field of "Information exchange / communication" with the original nature regarded as the environment or Humans and Earth. To accomplish its goals in research and education, this school requires people with high basic levels of information technology and international understanding.
SHSE's raison d-etre
SHSE: SHSE was founded to remove the imaginary line that divided the college of liberal arts from the college of science. SHSE's founders established subjects and courses with the widest possible knowledge base, stretching beyond the traditional limits. SHSE students are free to explore these disciplines in order to determine for themselves whether they feel more comfortable among the sciences or the liberal arts. The SHSE faculty members and administrators support and aid the students as they journey this intellectual path and complete their own specialty within four years.
Small class size for quality education: SHSE has 80 instructors and professors for 200 students, so students are taught with more personal attention and not by mass production. SHSE is also doing "Practical Training" or "Field Work" with a small number of students (10 to 35), and opportunities exist for about 10 students to survey and discuss investigations in a "basic seminar" or in "senior research projects" in groups of 1 to 5 students under one teacher.
Students' choice of subjects: Students are free to experiment with various courses by trial and error in the freshman year. The SHSE faculty members realize that students need time and a sampling of courses to make informed decisions.
Information and language education: SHSE believes strongly that students must learn information technology. All freshman must take a course in information subjects in Global Communication and learn how to operate a computer and use its basic functions. Starting in the sophomore year students can get advanced courses in information technology. SHSE also has many foreign teachers teaching courses in their native languages. Students, therefore, have the opportunity to converse directly with native speakers.Reading.Gaining special knowledge and communicating.
Field work: Field work is learning by real experience, as opposed to books or lectures. For example, in a class about environmental problems, students would survey a particular situation, analyze it, develop solutions, and discuss their work. The students can also stay over night for study at public facilities, which relate to their majors. There are many opportunities for field work at SHSE, and presently there are only a few schools in Japan that provide similar work in these subjects.