Education at HSP : Overview
The Program is run by the Steering Committee which consists of 15 faculty members (as of April 2019) from the five departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Along with these leading members, many other members including visiting and part-time staff are also being involved in educational activities at the Program. Visit here for further information on the faculty staff.
As of April 2019, the Program is home to 30 students on the Master course and 46 students on the Ph.D course. Their countries of origin cover many parts of the world.
During 2005–2006, the Program benefited from financial support from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology through its “Initiatives for Attractive Education in Graduate Schools”. The HSP’s “Intelligent Library” was born from this support. With its collection of volumes steadily expanding each year, this library constitutes indispensable research and educational resources for the Program.
Subjects to Be Studied
Although Human Security is a quite broad concept, the Program tries to illuminate and substantiate it by providing its own image of Human Security. This image is formed around three constitutive pillars, namely, “Development”, “Peace”, and “Human Rights”. The classes offered at the Program were designed accordingly.
The subjects shown below (2 credits for each in one semester) are the special classes provided for the Program students. From these and other classes, students on the Master course are required to take 30 credits including 4 required credits of the basic subjects. Ph.D candidates are required to take 20 credits. Most of the classes are conducted in Japanese.
- Basic Subjects : Introduction to Human Security I–II
- Advanced Subjects :
- “Development” : Development and Poverty I–II, Self-Supporting System and Social Cooperation I–II, Subsistence and Skill of Living I–II, Sustainability Strategy I–II
- “Peace” : Conflict, Peace and Coexistence I–II, Peace Processes and International Cooperation I–II, Refugees and Migrants, I–II, Governance and Norms I–II
- “Human Rights” : Life and Human Dignity I–II, Cultural Ecology I–II, Diversity and Universality I–II, State, Civil Society, and Corporation I–II
- Seminars : Seminar on Human Security I–X
- Practical Subjects : Practical Training on Human Security I–IV
Master Thesis, Special Report on Specific Subject, and Ph.D Dissertation
To complete the Master course and receive the Master Degree, each student has to submit either a “Master Thesis” or a “Special Report on Specific Subject”, which is to be evaluated by the Program faculty members for its acceptance. The former is an academic work which, based on critical review of the existing literature, could contribute to the advancement of knowledge in particular research area(s). The latter is more practical; students with some field experience and/or more practical interests can show their achievements in the Program through writing reports on their own activities or investigations conducted on the ground.
On the other hand, to complete the Ph.D course and receive the Ph.D Degree, each student has to submit a “Dissertation”, which is to be evaluated by the Program faculty members for its acceptance. Unlike the Master course which has two options regarding degree requirements, the only “way out” here is an academic contribution to the advancement of knowledge through his/her dissertation.
Full list of theses and dissertations completed by past students could be seen at the Thesis and Dissertation Titles page.
