Go Forward

Welcome to your Adventures in the Forest of Knowledge!

Meiji University School of Arts and Letters has a long tradition of producing many excellent graduates who have become valuable human resources. Over its long history, our school has constantly brought innovation to our education and research endeavours. This brilliant adventure has created our current "Knowledge Network" style with 3 departments and 14 majors. Through studying anything from Archaeology to Modern Sociology, and Philosophy to Drama, our students are able to come into contact with a wide range of cultures. Our academic field also covers Modern Media, and Gender, as well as classical Japanese such as Manyoshu and The Tale of Genji. Students are also able to learn about Islamic history and French symbolism. In our School, students will experience an exciting intellectual world of adventure.

 

To fully utilize such a rich forest of knowledge, students must first develop a solid foundation in their major. Whatever their main subject of study, all students are required to improve their language proficiency in their first and second years. Language is the essence of culture. Thus, we focus on foreign language education, and offer a variety of foreign language classes, from beginners to advanced level. We also have multiple study abroad programs, including the Interfaculty Exchange Student Program. We strongly recommend that our students develop their abilities with these programs.

 

The School of Arts and Letters is working closely with its Graduate School to implement institutional reforms that will offer more advanced learning opportunities. As education becomes more sophisticated around the world, taking Graduate School level classes when an undergraduate can be a very beneficial experience. It not only serves to deepen their research skills, but also allows them to learn about the latest research trends that will contribute to the future of their disciplines and which will involve interdisciplinary research. The results of our efforts to advance interdisciplinarity and internationality in our school can be found in our electronic journal Meiji University, Asian Studies and in our academic exchanges with institutions all over the world.

 

The School of Arts and Letters also places importance on education that enhances students' thinking skills. The French philosopher Descartes said that good sense is fairly distributed amongst everyone but few people are able to use it correctly. Even though everyone is given the ability to think, not being able to use the skill properly leads to serious problems and disasters that can result in uncontrollable confusion. Unfortunately, in today’s world including Japan, such cases occur frequently. In order to solve this problem, we want our students to acquire the ability to think critically and logically. Immediately after enrollment, our students will study their major in depth in small groups. This kind of learning environment trains students to acquire the fundamental skills to “think”. We also encourage students to enhance their skills so that they can convey their opinion and can acquire heuristic methods of discussion with their classmates. To think effectively, students are asked to “question norms”; that is, instead of accepting what people say without questioning, students should verify the facts by themselves, pursue the truth by always asking “what is the underlying cause of the problem” and continually seek other ways to find solutions. This is the fundamental approach which is required in learning.

 

In addition, Meiji University offers diverse qualification courses, including those for “teachers”, “curators”, and “librarians”. Many more of our students each year become interested in these courses, and take these qualifications compared to other schools. Students are also able to undertake research in Education, Social Studies, Library Information Science, and University Museum Science at the Department of Education in the Graduate School of Arts and Letters. Also, classes are offered on the Clinical Psychology Course, that are required in order to become certified psychologists or clinical psychologists.

 

We strongly hope that our students will polish up their rough gemstones by exploring this deep Forest of Knowledge, that is, the School of Arts and Letters. We believe that students will find the basis and the true starting point of their lives here. Our students’ most important mission is to find a way to live brighter lives.