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Promoting Integrated Education Across the Humanities and Sciences
Integrated Report -Vision Report- 2023-2024
Tue 15 Apr 25
Integrated Report -Vision Report- 2023-2024
Tue 15 Apr 25
Waseda University’s academic research and education contribute to humanity. A wide range of activities at Waseda contribute to this, including advanced, original research that impacts the world to university-wide educational activities that transcend the boundaries of the humanities and sciences, alongside the day-to-day challenges undertaken by students both on and off the campus. Below there is information on some of the activities and outcomes that have a particularly significant social impact.
(This article is reprinted from Integrated Report – Vision Report – 2023-2024)
Establishing new development programs for master’s and PhD students transcending the boundaries of humanities and science
As part of new activities aimed at realizing a carbon neutral society, in 2024, Waseda established a new Graduate School Minor system that leverages its strengths as a comprehensive university.
This system contributes to a convergence of knowledge by unifying graduate school education with no boundaries between humanities and sciences, enabling students to study a minor at the same time as their major, thereby fostering outstanding master’s and doctoral students who contribute to the realization of a carbon neutral society. With the participation of many companies, we cultivate PhD students who can be active in companies around the world by offering opportunities for practical learning, an example of which can be found in the form of courses that incorporate social issues actually faced by companies as well as long-term internships that provide practical experience in society.
Waseda University’s approach to data science education
The evolution of ICT has made it possible to handle various types of data, and this has made data science even more important, not only in day-to-day life, but in a wide range of academic and research fields as well. Waseda University sees data science as the science of decision-making based on data, and we promote the merging of data science with the specialized fields handled at various undergraduate and graduate schools. Rational decision-making based on data requires not only a knowledge of data science, but also a correct understanding of data and the problems at hand, in other words, a deep knowledge of specialized fields. Our goal is to cultivate people of high aptitude who can create new knowledge by combining the latest data science with knowledge obtained through various specialized fields, such as science and engineering, humanities, and social sciences.
Furthermore, resolving problems in today’s complex and global society often requires knowledge of multiple specialized fields. We are focusing our efforts on developing students who can collaborate regardless of their field of specialization—be it science, engineering, humanities, or social science—using data science as a common language, to resolve issues and open the door to a new era.
Features of the data science education program
Methods developed separately in fields such as statistics and machine learning have been organized so as to be learned systematically from the unified perspective of data science, so students now have a clear view on learning approaches to using their knowledge of data science in their own specialized fields. Almost all subjects are offered fully on-demand to students in all undergraduate and graduate schools, so any Waseda student can take these courses with no restrictions on time or place. Each year, with a total of more than 16,000 students taking data science courses, the program fosters and produces individuals who have gained new added value by combining their specialized field and data science.
Waseda has also established an original data science certification system which provides students with the opportunity to learn according to their own interests, by presenting targets to be achieved at each certification level, and issuing certificates when specified requirements are met. Starting in AY 2024, this program is offered at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University. It contributes broadly to society by promoting data science education that transcends the boundaries between universities.
Column: Shigenobu Okuma and Data Science
“Without clarifying the details of current conditions in Japan, the government cannot effectively execute administration. And without comparing its policies against the results of past policies, the government cannot know the pros and cons of them.”
These are the words left behind by Shigenobu Okuma, the founder of Waseda University, more than 100 years ago. He was talking about the importance of data science.
In 1881, while he was serving as a minister in the Diet, he established the Statistics Institute, the first statistics agency in Japan, and was himself appointed president of that institute. In 2017, 136 years after the establishment of the Statistics Institute, Waseda University established the Center for Data Science, in keeping with Shigenobu Okuma’s original intent.
Integrated Report – Vision Report – 2023-2024
