Educational Objectives

The Department of Health Sciences, School of Medicine (hereinafter referred to as “Department of Health Sciences”) has determined the following educational objectives to produce healthcare human resources with capacity and motivation in the area of health sciences in response to societal demand. They are based on the core principles of Hokkaido University (hereinafter “HU”) and the proud legacies from Sapporo Agricultural College – “Frontier Spirit”, “Global Perspectives”, “All-Round Education” and “Practical Learning”.

1. All-Round Education to develop good human qualities

Healthcare professions require good human qualities of healthcare professionals to be able to fully understand patients’ feelings and high ethicality. We are committed to conducting the All-Round Education to help students better understand individuals, community and the environment and acquire excellent insight and a capacity for sound judgement through four-year education programs.

2. Education to develop a comprehensive perspective of healthcare and specialized knowledge and expertise

There has been a remarkable advancement in medical science and healthcare to date which requires of healthcare professionals that they gain highly specialized skills and knowledge and an overall view from healthcare to social welfare. To respond to that HU provides education to develop a broad view and good knowledge of and good skills in healthcare.

3. Production of healthcare workers with a global perspective

Healthcare professionals in the 21st century must possess an ever more global perspective and engage themselves in exchanges with developed countries or assisting developing countries. Department of Health Sciences conducts education to develop a global mindset in its students through HU’s general education courses in languages and liberal arts together with specialized courses such as International Health Sciences.

4. Development of teaching professionals and education researchers with Frontier Spirit

Department of Health Sciences aims to pursue research to establish health sciences, enhance advanced technologies and theory and develop teaching professionals and education researchers who can teach following generations.

Admissions Policy

Our vision

At the Department of Health Sciences, we are committed to contributing to human welfare and well-being through the development of advanced healthcare and the production of healthcare professionals with good human qualities and high ethical standards as well as research-oriented human resources.

Educational objectives

In today’s dramatically evolving healthcare industry, we strive to produce nurses, clinical radiologists, clinical laboratory technologists, physical therapists, occupational therapists and research-oriented human resources who not only acquire highly specialized knowledge and skills but also possess a sense of clinical inquiry, high ethical standards, good human qualities, global perspectives and a sense of social responsibility and contribute to the healthcare practice and development with a broad perspective of the challenges facing the health and welfare of the global community.

Students we are seeking

1. Knowledge and skills

We seek to identify students who meet the necessary basic scholastic proficiency and skill levels to acquire a wide spectrum of basic knowledge and specialized knowledge.

2. Thinking skills, judgment and expressiveness

Demonstrate skills to find ever-growing complex and diversified challenges and analyze their nature as well as make decisions over and resolve the challenges.

3. Initiatives for collaborative learning in a diverse environment

Skills to gather the necessary information to the solution to challenges and achieve a goal in collaboration with others with diverse values are key traits we seek.

4. Ethics and empathy

High ethical standards and empathy as good human qualities to understand the pain of other people are also expected.

Academic skills students are expected to have learned before starting university

Students should broadly acquire basic academic competence through school subjects in high school since science, math and English are essential basic learning to gain advanced knowledge for healthcare professionals. International mindset, broad perspectives and communication skills are also considered important.

Basic Admissions Policy

General student admissions (home student selection for each undergraduate school at the early scheduled entry):

Home student applicants shall be screened through a set of the Common Test for University Admissions and HU’s second stage examination to have their academic skills and knowledge, thinking skills, judgment and expressiveness assessed.

Frontier admissions Type I (holistic admissions):

Home student applicants shall be screened through a set of the Common Test for University Admissions to have their academic skills and knowledge assessed, a transcript, competency evaluation and an interview to have their thinking skills, judgment and expressiveness assessed as well as their initiative, respect for diversity, collaboration, active collaborative learning approaches in a diverse environment and a sense of responsibility.

Returnee admissions:

Returnee applicants shall be screened through a set of a certificate of academic qualification, a transcript and an interview to have their academic skills and knowledge assessed. Other requirements are a personal statement and an essay on a given subject for the thinking skills, judgment and expressiveness assessment and an extracurricular/off-school activity record and an interview to evaluate the initiative, respect for diversity, active collaborative learning approaches in a diverse environment and a sense of responsibility.

Self-supported overseas student admissions:

Overseas student applicants shall be screened through a set of an external English proficiency test score, an Examination for Japanese University Admission for International Students (EJU) score and an interview to have their academic skills and knowledge assessed. Another requirement is an essay on a given topic for the thinking skills, judgment and expressiveness assessment. Applicant’s initiative, respect for diversity, active collaborative learning approaches in a diverse environment and a sense of responsibility will be evaluated in the interview.

Diploma Policy (DP)

School of Medicine Diploma Policy

Under Hokkaido University’s four core principles (Frontier Spirit, Global Perspectives, All-Round Education and Practical Learning), the School of Medicine sets educational objectives to develop human resources with good human qualities, high ethical standards and global perspectives who contribute to medical science, healthcare and life science practice and development through systematic education to serve human health enhancement.
Having the degree conferment requirements for bachelor’s degree programs established with the concrete competence profiles required for the type of human resources set for each department by the educational objectives, the School awards bachelor’s degrees to those who possess the competence and complete the required course credits.

Degree conferment requirements applicable to the students in the Department of Health Sciences

Based on the educational objectives of the School of Medicine, the Department of Health Sciences sets its educational objectives including:

1. All-Round Education to develop good human qualities;
2. Education to gain perspective on healthcare and specialized knowledge and skills;
3. Development of healthcare professionals with Global Perspectives; and
4. Development of leaders and education researchers with Frontier Spirit.

And as the capacities described below, the Department awards bachelor’s degrees to the students who:

Knowledge and understanding

• Have a broad general knowledge and a high degree of professional qualities as a leader in health sciences and nursing sciences;
• Have expertise and a body of knowledge essential for health science and nursing science practitioners; and
• Understand the cultural, historical, societal and environmental contexts which affect health sciences and nursing sciences.

Versatile skills

• Have abilities to identify ever-growing complex and diversified challenges and gain insight into their true nature;
• Demonstrate skills to gather the necessary information to the solution to challenges as well as to analyze, make decisions over and resolve them; and
• Possess the academic and clinical spirit of inquiry and capacity to extensively contribute back to society.

Soft skills

• Lead academic nursing and health sciences with the capacity to perform team medicine;
• Have a sense of social responsibility and self-management skills as a practitioner and researcher of health sciences and nursing;
• Possess high ethical values and practice high ethical standards while facing diversified values in communities; and
• Keep up with the latest studies in health sciences and nursing and put them into practice for their entire career.

Curriculum Policy (CP)

School of Medicine Curriculum Policy

In the School of Medicine, to achieve the educational goals, we have established the Faculty of Medicine to study medicine, and the Department of Health Sciences to study nursing, radiological technology, medical technology, physical therapy, and occupational therapy. We implement a systematic educational approach to train professionals and researchers. The undergraduate curriculum (six years in the Faculty of Medicine, four years in the Department of Health Sciences) consists of “general education courses” and systematic series of “specialized courses”. For specialized courses, each faculty/department defines a curriculum policy and designs curriculums to meet its objectives.

Department of Health Sciences Curriculum Policy

The Department of Health Sciences designs and implements the curriculum described below aiming at the development of human resources whose capabilities meet the Department’s degree conferment requirements.

• HU organizes a curriculum with general education courses which are available mainly to first-year students regardless of their major. It aims that every student gains the knowledge and awareness required for those who study at HU including strong communication skills, respect for human and community diversity, creative and critical thinking, a sense of social responsibility and ethical standards. To be specific, HU offers liberal arts courses (Core Curriculum) in the categories such as “Freshman Seminar”, Interdisciplinary Subjects, Specific Themes, Foreign Language Subjects, Foreign Language Seminars and General Subjects. HU also provides students with foundation courses to help them prepare themselves for studying specialized courses and help them gain basic knowledge.
• In the second year and onwards, the Department allocates students to 5 divisions including Nursing, Radiological Technology, Medical Technology, Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy. They study specialized courses to strengthen their expertise in their fields. We design the curriculum with specialized courses aiming to help students develop good human qualities for healthcare workers and gain medical knowledge and skills in advanced healthcare.