Undergraduate Programs
- University-wide common curriculum
Religious Studies
Exploring the meanings of life to find a new identity
Founded in the spirit of Christianity, Shirayuri University emphasizes the tenets of Christian spiritual understanding, human understanding, and global understanding and values the discipline of religious studies as a form of education that helps students comprehend both history and human nature. At Shirayuri University, the religious studies curriculum focuses on helping students not only understand things intellectually but also develop an awareness of the unseen and appreciate the transcendent wonders of the world around them. Religious studies courses provide students with unique opportunities to rediscover their own inner identities and interpret the outside world from a broader perspective.
Foreign Languages
Developing a mastery of foreign languages and a deeper understanding of different cultures
With cross-border understanding and awareness growing increasingly important in the modern world, knowledge of foreign languages and cultures has become a crucial element of the educational landscape.
Shirayuri University students are required to take courses in the foreign languages curriculum in their first and second years of enrollment. The curriculum offers courses in English, French, German, Chinese, and Korean, all of which meet in small-group classes by skill level. Interested students can study multiple languages and continue taking classes in their third and fourth years of enrollment, as well.
Courses in the foreign languages curriculum also use the ample multimedia facilities in the LL classrooms, computer labs, and regular classrooms to help students develop their language skills through foreign TV programs, films, and music, enhance their cross-cultural understanding, and gain stronger communication abilities.
General Education
Nourishing your intellectual curiosity and finding new inspiration through encounters with different academic fields
To make your way in the world, you need to have a basic command of the issues that characterize contemporary society, understand things from different angles, and make your own decisions accordingly. Getting to that point requires far more than surface-level, one-dimensional knowledge, however—you need a wide-ranging educational background and well-rounded character to thrive in society. In hopes of giving students an environment where they can build that broad foundation, Shirayuri University features a general education curriculum that introduces students to their fields of interest. The curriculum, centered on the themes of “living, life, and society,” has three core components: basic education for helping students understand themselves and others (philosophy, aesthetics, history, women’s studies, health sciences, and communication-oriented Japanese language studies), basic education for helping students understand social phenomena (economics, political science, environmental studies, coexistence, the relationship between humanity and nature, international understanding, cultural understanding, and international cooperation, etc.), and education for helping students acquire knowledge and perspective through experiential learning. Ranging from women’s life design programs and experience-oriented volunteer work to instruction in the ICT skills that people need to survive in the modern-day information society and courses designed to streamline the transition for new students, the general education curriculum is home to a wide array of valuable educational offerings.
