Chapter 1: Internal Quality Assurance and Management
Standard 1: Academic Unit Management
Viewpoint: Any school which applies for accreditation by ABEST21 (hereinafter called “the School”) shall have a management system to operate the organization in an appropriate manner to meet the changes in the education and research environment.
Criterion 1-1 (C-01): The School must have a management system appropriate for its type, size and function as an educational and research organization.
Criterion 1-2 (C-02): The School must clarify the decision-making process for its management-related issues, and maintain a good relationship between the committees which deal with the administrative matters and the faculty meeting that examines those matters.
Criterion 1-3 (C-03): The School must conduct an external evaluation of its educational and research activities systematically and periodically, for appropriate management.
Standard 2: Governance
Viewpoint: The School needs to establish a governance system for an appropriate decision-making process so that the academic unit management can meet the changes in the education and research environment.
Criterion 2-1 (C-04): The School must have a governance system to examine systematically and periodically the appropriateness of its management.
Criterion 2-2 (C-05): The School must disclose the results of the management matters examined to ensure the fairness and transparency of the governance system.
Criterion 2-3 (C-06): The School must improve its management system and the educational and research environment in a timely manner based on the results of the governance examined.
Standard 3: Self-Check/Self-Evaluation
Viewpoint: In response to the rapidly changing environment of education and research, systematic self-check/self-evaluation is required to spot the issues for improvement. Such issues should be solved based on the action plans through PDCA cycle, and the results should be examined to check whether the quality of education has been enhanced.
Criterion 3-1 (C-07): The School must have the system to practice the self-check/self-evaluation systematically and periodically.
Criterion 3-2 (C-08): The School as an organization must share the analysis of the self-check/self-evaluation, clarify systematically the issues for improvement, develop and implement the action plan to solve such issues.
Criterion 3-3 (C-09): For the implementation of the action plan the School is required to make effort to enhance the quality of education by using PDCA cycle and examine the results.
Criterion 3-4 (C-10): The School must disclose the analysis of self-check/self-evaluation to its stakeholders and have a feedback system to hear the opinions.
Standard 4: Staff Development
Viewpoint: In response to the changing environment of education and research due to the “globalizing economy, society and culture”, the School must promote the globalization of management system as an education and research organization.
Criterion 4-1 (C-11): The School must work be equipped with the globality of the administrative staff in line with the development of the “globalizing economy, society and culture”.
Criterion 4-2 (C-12): The School must practice Staff Training systematically and periodically to enhance abilities to communicate globally and to manage diversity of the administrative staff in line with the development of the “globalizing economy, society and culture”.
Criterion 4-3 (C-13): The School must make an effort to maintain the staff diversity consisted of the diverse background of administrative staff in order to enhance staffs’ global communication ability.”
Criterion 4-4 (C-14): The School must evaluate staff performance systematically and periodically in line with the development of the “globalizing economy, society and culture”.
Chapter 2: Mission Statement
Standard 5: Mission Statement
Viewpoint: The School should clearly define its Mission Statement, which states the ideal human resources to be nurtured as well as ideal expertise, skills, and competencies. Since the School belongs to the parent university as an educational organization, the Mission Statement of the School must be a part of the Mission Statement of the university. The School must secure the financial resources needed to realize the Mission Statement.
Criterion 5-1 (C-15): The School’s mission statement must be a clear statement which includes developing expert knowledge, fundamental knowledge and sophisticated expertise in the realm of management.
Criterion 5-2 (C-16): The School’s mission statement must support the mission of the parent university.
Criterion 5-3 (C-17): The School’s mission statement must aim at character-building of the members of the modern society as well as nurturing professionals to meet the needs of the globalizing economic society.
Criterion 5-4 (C-18): The School must publish its mission statement to the stakeholders, including students, utilizing various information media. Regarding the contents of the mission statement, the School must hear the opinions from the stakeholders systematically to review its mission statement periodically.
Standard 6: Financial Strategies
Viewpoint: The School needs to secure necessary funds to realize its mission statement. For this purpose, both short-term and long-term financial strategies should be planned, particularly to raise external funds.
Criterion 6-1 (C-19): The School must have a financial basis necessary for realizing its mission statement.
Criterion 6-2 (C-20): The School must develop yearly financial strategies for securing the funds necessary for realizing its mission statement.
Criterion 6-3 (C-21): The School must plan short-term and long-term financial strategies to secure adequate budgets necessary for realizing its mission statement.
Chapter 3: Curriculum
Standard 7: Learning Goals
Viewpoint: To nurture human resources as identified in its mission statement, the School needs to set its learning goals by defining the expertise, skills and competencies to be developed through the educational programs.
Criterion 7-1 (C-22): To achieve its mission statement, the School needs to set its learning goals by defining the expertise, skills and competencies to be developed through the educational programs.
Criterion 7-2 (C-23): The School must set the learning goals according to a certain process in the organization. The learning goals must be clearly stated in the course handbook, course outline, syllabi etc., to be announced to the students. The learning goals must be reviewed regularly by collecting opinions from the stakeholders.
Criterion 7-3 (C-24): The School must build a system to enhance communication with its students and provide academic assistance to students in choosing the courses to help them achieve their learning goals.
Standard 8: Curriculum Policy and Management of Curriculum
Viewpoint: The School must design its curriculum systematically following its curriculum policy. In designing the curriculum, the School should consider elements such as systematic arrangement of the basic, fundamental, specialized subjects, placement of core subjects required for specialized education, and coordination between the academic/practical subjects.
Criterion 8-1 (C-25): The School must set the curriculum policy according to a certain process and review the curriculum policy on a regular basis as an organization by collecting the opinions of stakeholders.
Criterion 8-2 (C-26): The School must design its curriculum according to its curriculum policy and arrange the core subjects systematically.
Criterion 8-3 (C-27): The School must consider the following aims when arranging the specialized subjects:
1) Combine and bridge theory and practice effectively, and follow the current trends
2) Enable students to develop expertise and professional skills necessary for global management professionals
3) Help students develop ideal personality and broaden their international perspective as global management professionals.
Criterion 8-4 (C-28): The School must design its curriculum aiming to expand the learning opportunities of its students by introducing the following measures.
1) Promotion of practical education such as case study, local survey, and company internship
2) Opportunity to take related courses in other departments at the same university and to use a credit transfer system with other schools
3) Opportunity to take courses of overseas universities via online classes.
Criterion 8-5 (C-29): The School must review its curriculum regularly and systematically, based on facts including student’s course registration, credits earned, academic performance, and career options.
Standard 9: Quality Improvement of Curriculum
Viewpoint: To improve the quality of the curriculum, the School must maintain its educational environment, ensure sufficient class hours, and clearly state its grading criteria.
Criterion 9-1 (C-30): The School must provide an environment and a guidance system that is conducive to learning and teaching in order to improve the quality of the curriculum.
Criterion 9-2 (C-31): The School must take the following measures concerning students’ course registration.
1) Secure adequate classroom hours necessary for completing one credit of each course
2) Design adequate class time schedules
3) Set a limit to the number of credits which students can take
4) Set a quota on the number of students per course
5) Provide appropriate guidance for the students.
In particular, in case of providing shortened programs, the School must ensure that the educational methods and time schedules enable the students to achieve their learning goals.
Criterion 9-3 (C-32): The School must establish clearly defined standards for calculating grades and for evaluating the academic performance of its students in a fair and strict manner, state them in its school code, and inform the students of them.
Criterion 9-4 (C-33): The School must state in the syllabus for each course its educational goals, course content, course plans, educational methods, class materials, faculty office hours, and standards for evaluating academic performance. The consistency between the syllabus and the actual class contents needs to be examined systematically and periodically.
Criterion 9-5 (C-34): The School’s faculty and staff members should share information about students’ course records and total credits earned, and develop a system to provide necessary guidance to students.
Standard 10: Online Education
Viewpoint: When delivering online education utilizing various sophisticated media, the School must work to maintain the quality of its teaching and learning and strive for an improved educational effect.
Criterion 10-1 (C-35): When conducting online education utilizing various sophisticated media, the School must work to maintain the quality of its teaching and learning and strive for an improved educational effect.
Criterion 10-2 (C-36): When conducting online education, the School must make effort to maintain faculty support system such as teaching assistants to support faculty members, and technical staff to support the IT infrastructure and help faculty members with IT issues.
Criterion 10-3 (C-37): When conducting online education, the School must have student support system to provide assistance in forming the learning environment.
Criterion 10-4 (C-38): When conducting online education, the School must evaluate the achievement level of the learning goals, examine the learning outcomes systematically, and review the online teaching and learning methods.
Standard 11: Diploma Policy and Learning Outcomes
Viewpoint: The School must set a Diploma Policy to ensure that the student has completed the course by earning credits required. In response to the social needs for leaning goals, the learning outcomes must be assured.
Criterion 11-1 (C-39): The School must set a clear Diploma Policy which states the criteria for course completion including credit requirements. Diploma Policy which provides fair and strict judgment should be clarified in the School Code and published to the students.
Criterion 11-2 (C-40): To assure the leaning outcomes of the alumni, the School must build a system to collect stakeholders’ opinions and examine the learning outcomes systematically and periodically.
Criterion 11-3 (C-41): Based on the examined results of the learning outcomes, the School must review the Mission Statement, Learning Goals and the Curriculum according to the prescribed process systematically and periodically.
Standard 12: Globalization of Curriculum
Viewpoint: The School must promote the globalization of curriculum to meet the needs of economic, social, and cultural globalization.
Criterion 12-1 (C-42): The School must make effort to practice classes in international language, classes taught by foreign invited professors, foreign seminars and online joint class with overseas schools, etc.
Criterion 12-2 (C-43): The School must make effort to establish international collaborations such as joint degree program, double degree program, and overseas internship.
Criterion 12-3 (C-44): The School must provide adequate support to foreign students in course guidance, study and career development.
Chapter 4: Students
Standard 13: Admission Policy and Student Selection
Viewpoint: The School should clarify its target students and set its admission policy for an adequate selection process in order to accept the ideal students for its educational program.
Criterion 13-1 (C-45): The School should clarify its target students and state it in the student admission materials to provide fair admission opportunities for all prospective candidates, and actually take in the students who fit the target profile. Target profile should be reviewed systematically and periodically.
Criterion 13-2 (C-46): The School must set its admission policy to evaluate the scholastic abilities and aptitudes of candidates in a consistent and objective fashion through its selection processes. The admission policy should be reviewed systematically and periodically.
Criterion 13-3 (C-47): According to the admission policy, the School must define the qualification for applicants and details of entrance examination in the printed materials such as student admission materials, and show them to all applicants.
Criterion 13-4 (C-48): The School must make efforts to match the actual number of student enrollment with the required enrollment through its selection processes.
Criterion 13-5 (C-49): The School must review its student selection criteria and methods systematically and periodically.
Standard 14: Student Encouragement and Support
Viewpoint: The School must have a system for providing financial support to the students who face difficulties with continuing their studies, as well as a system to enhance academic progression for students who achieve excellent academic results. Through such system the School should encourage students to continue with their study.
Criterion 14-1 (C-50): The School must have a system that rewards students who achieve excellent academic results, and also a system to acknowledge the social contribution of its students.
Criterion 14-2 (C-51): The School must have an administrative system for providing financial, academic and livelihood support to students who face difficulties with continuing their studies, and to international students and disabled students who are in need for special support.
Criterion 14-3 (C-52): The School must have administrative offices which collect and process relevant information and provide consultation for the students concerning career options, career development and studying abroad.
Criterion 14-4 (C-53): The School must provide orientations on the support system where necessary.
Criterion 14-5 (C-54): The School must review the academic support and reward system systematically and periodically.
Standard 15: Student Body Diversity
Viewpoint: The School must make effort to take in students with various cultural and social backgrounds in response to the needs of the economically, socially and culturally globalized society.
Criterion 15-1 (C-55): The School must take measures to attract a diverse student body.
Criterion 15-2 (C-56): The School must provide academic, financial and livelihood support for students with different cultural backgrounds where appropriate.
Criterion 15-3 (C-57): The School must have a system to send its students to foreign universities, and an administrative system to provide necessary information and counseling for students who wish to study at foreign universities.
Criterion 15-4 (C-58): The School must review its system for student mobility with foreign countries systematically and periodically to promote student interchanges with different cultures.
Chapter 5: Faculty
Standard 16: Faculty Structure
Viewpoint: The School should have an adequate number of faculty members with the teaching ability required for the educational program.
Criterion 16-1 (C-59): The School must have a number of full-time professors and associate professors that is adequate for its educational program.
Criterion 16-2 (C-60): The School must secure adequate number of practically qualified faculty members necessary for its practical education.
Criterion 16-3 (C-61): The School must ensure that the ratio of full-time and part-time faculty members in its faculty structure is appropriate.
Criterion 16-4 (C-62): The School must maintain faculty diversity in terms of age, gender, and nationality in its faculty structure.
Standard 17: Faculty Qualifications
Viewpoint: The School should have faculty members not merely of sufficient number, but also of sufficient expertise and skills.
Criterion 17-1 (C-63): The School must have qualified full-time faculty members for each of the majors it offers in accordance with the following criteria:
1) Faculty members recognized as possessing outstanding accomplishments in research or education
2) Faculty members recognized as possessing outstanding skills in their field of study
3) Faculty members recognized as possessing outstanding knowledge and experience in their field of study.
Criterion 17-2 (C-64): The School must set rules and standards for recruiting and promotion of faculty members. Recruiting and promotion of the faculty members must be conducted according to the prescribed process in a fair and objective manner.
Criterion 17-3 (C-65): The School must systematically review the faculty members’ performance during the past five years on 1) research activities, 2) educational activities, 3) social contribution activities. The materials showing the performance should be disclosed.
Criterion 17-4 (C-66): The School must evaluate the contents of practical education taught by the practically qualified faculty members systematically and periodically, and examine the appropriateness of the course subject assigned.
Criterion 17-5 (C-67): The School must have a system to reward its faculty members who have excellent achievements in academic research or education.
Standard 18: Maintenance of Education and Research Environment
Viewpoint: The School should maintain a good education and research environment for its faculty members to enhance their teaching abilities.
Criterion 18-1 (C-68): The School must limit the number of courses its faculty members teach so that the faculty members can secure time to develop their education and research activities.
Criterion 18-2 (C-69): The School must have a system to support its faculty members to secure necessary research funds as well as to receive support by administrative and technical staff necessary for promoting faculty members’ education and research activities.
Criterion 18-3 (C-70): The School must have a system for its faculty members to relieve them from their education activities and concentrate on research for a certain period of time, such as sabbatical leave system or study abroad system.
Criterion 18-4 (C-71): The School must build a system to reflect its faculty’s excellent achievement in education and research to its curricula, so that the curricula are vitalized.
Criterion 18-5 (C-72): The School must make effort to maintain the educational environment where the faculty members can teach students using electronic media.
Standard 19: Faculty Development
Viewpoint: The School must conduct faculty development to enhance their teaching abilities systematically and periodically.
Criterion 19-1 (C-73): The School must conduct faculty development to enhance their teaching abilities systematically and periodically.
Criterion 19-2 (C-74) The School must systematically understand the improvements in its faculty members’ course content, materials used in their courses, and teaching methods based on the results of the self-check/self-evaluation and the student evaluation. Opportunities for faculty development must be provided where necessary.
Criterion 19-3 (C-75): The School must provide the opportunities for faculty development so that its faculty members can enhance their cutting-edge expertise and specialized knowledge.
Standard 20: Faculty Diversity
Viewpoint: The School needs to have a faculty coming from diverse backgrounds, in accordance with the globalization of economy, society and culture.
Criterion 20-1 (C-76): The School must have a faculty whose members represent various backgrounds.
Criterion 20-2 (C-77): The School must maintain and review its system for faculty members’ international exchange between overseas universities systematically and periodically.
Criterion 20-3 (C-78): The School must have a system to invite visiting teachers with world-class excellent academic performance or special expertise.
Chapter 6: Educational Infrastructure
Standard 21: Maintenance of Educational Infrastructure
Viewpoint: The School needs to maintain the necessary facilities for the education and research activities.
Criterion 21-1 (C-79): The School must maintain an appropriate number and quality of its facilities, such as classrooms, seminar rooms, and study rooms. The School must also provide study environment that enables students to engage in self-study.
Criterion 21-2 (C-80): The School must provide an individual office for each full-time faculty member and have a joint research room for the faculty.
Criterion 21-3 (C-81): The School must systematically maintain a collection of books, academic journals, and audiovisual materials necessary for the education and research activities at its own library.
Criterion 21-4 (C-82): The School must review its facilities systematically and periodically.
Standard 22: Globalization of Educational Infrastructure
Viewpoint: The School must prepare appropriate facilities for the faculty members and students with different cultural backgrounds, to meet the accelerating globalization of economy, society and culture.
Criterion 22-1 (C-83): The School must prepare appropriate facilities in terms of education, research, and lifestyle for the faculty members and students with different cultural backgrounds.
Criterion 22-2 (C-84): The School must ensure that it can accommodate different food and lifestyle traditions of the faculty members and students with diverse cultural backgrounds.
Criterion 22-3 (C-85): The School must prepare appropriate religious facilities for students with different cultural backgrounds, where necessary.