Information on Graduate School
Broadening Knowledge in the Future:
What is the Graduate School of Human Socio-Environment Studies?
Kanazawa University aims to be a "research university that emphasizes education." Although this means a number of things, one is to develop from full-fledged undergraduate education to advanced graduate school research. To achieve this aim, Kanazawa University has three graduate schools corresponding to the three undergraduate colleges, one of which is a new Graduate School of Human Socio-Environment Studies established in 2006 mainly for those who want to go on studying afer graduating the College of Human and Social Sciences to which the School of Humanities belongs.
What, then, is the Graduate School of Human Socio-Environment Studies? This somewhat intricate name is not just the popular word "environment" tacked onto "humans" and "society." It refers to interdisciplinary studies that embrace all environments giving birth to humans and human life itself as a "field of the comprehensive questionings of humans, cultures, and societies" ? this is our graduate school. This new teaching enterprise seeks to address the latest current problems while incorporating the earlier fields of letters, law, and economics.
Master Course made of Three Departments
When you advance from undergraduate to graduate school, what will you be interested in? The ancient Chinese legal system? Experimental work in cognitive psychology? Or perhaps environmental economics? To help our graduate students achieve deeper specialization and a broader interdisciplinary approach, the Graduate School of Human Socio-Environment Studies combines the previous master course programs in letters, law, and economics into one master course that covers three new departments called the Department of Humanities, the Department of Social Systems, and the Department of Public Policy Management. We believe at least one of these departments will capture your interests.
Future Researchers (Doctor Course)
You notice that just completing the master course has not yet satisfied your intellectual curiosity. If so, your future is probably to become a teacher at a university or a researcher at a business to investigate thoroughly whatever interests you. To synthesize into an interdisciplinary field truly fusing the specialist knowledge you have gained so far, the doctor course of Human Socio-Environment Studies combines all of the departments into one called the Department of Human Socio-Environment Studies. Here, you are certain to establish the basis for your research for your lifetime.
