Education
Liberal Arts Exploration Program
Educational program for undergraduate students at a science and technology university who wish to pursue in-depth liberal arts studies.
As a science and technology university student, you may wish to study liberal arts fields in depth while pursuing your specialties. You also may crave active, intensive peer-to-peer discussions and dialogues on social issues. We started this special educational program in 2024 to address such student needs.
This program empowers you in two ways. First, it equips you with the knowledge and skills to explore questions in the humanities, social sciences, and interdisciplinary fields between liberal arts and science. Then, it guides you in discovering solutions and disseminating your findings. Second, it provides a platform for active, intensive exchanges and mutual stimulation among peers.
Through providing opportunities to learn humanities, social sciences, and interdisciplinary fields in depth, the program aims to cultivate students’ abilities to structure new knowledge bases and practical methodology across conventional academic fields and to translate learning/knowledge in liberal arts within the context of science studies and vice versa.
The Outline of the Program
The following shows the steps to proceed with the program. The bold and underlines indicate the completion requirements.
Step1:
Complete the Liberal Arts Exploration Workshop. The workshop is held in the 2nd quarter of the 1st year after completing the Humanities and Social Science Courses named "Tokyo Tech Visionary Project" (mandatory in the 1st quarter of the 1st year) or in the 2nd quarter of the 2nd year after joining the department. The workshop activities involve learning methods for in-depth studies and building peer-to-peer relationships. Specifically, you decide on a theme to pursue, create your course and research plans, and then proceed with your exploration according to your research plan.
Step2:
Take courses according to your course planning. In addition to the mandatory courses, four additional credits are required from the following course groups:
- Humanities and Social Science Courses
- English Language Courses
- Second Foreign Language Courses
- Wellness Courses (excluding practical training programs)
- Japanese Language and Culture Courses
Step3:
Participate in the interim results sharing meeting (held twice a year or so) more than a specified number of times to share your research activities and updates. You also review your course and research planning based on feedback from faculty and peers.
Step4:
Complete the Liberal Arts Exploration Mentoring course held throughout the 3rd year. Your mentor will be chosen from teachers at the Institute for Liberal Arts by matching your topic of interest and the mentor's specialty. Your mentor will provide advice/feedback for your pursuit and research planning.
Step5:
Produce your Liberal Arts Final Report under the guidance of your mentor. The following shows the specified criteria:
- (1)The report should reflect your learning outcomes from the Liberal Arts Exploration Workshop and Liberal Arts Exploration Mentoring.
- (2)It should be as long as or more than 10,000 characters in Japanese.
Step6:
You will receive a completion certificate upon passing the oral examination on the research activity process and the Liberal Arts Final Report content.
Note:
You can include the credits gained through this program (i.e., Liberal Arts Exploration Workshop, Liberal Arts Exploration Mentoring, and four additional credits) in the total required credits for graduation.
