, or AIU, is a

public university A public university or public college is a university or college that is in owned by the state or receives significant public funds through a national or subnational government, as opposed to a private university. Whether a national universit ...

located in

Akita City 'Autumn field' is the capital city of Akita Prefecture, Japan, and has been designated a core city since 1 April 1997. , the city has an estimated population of 305,625, 136,628 households and a population density of 340 persons per km2. The to ...

Akita Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Provinces and prefectures" in ; "Tōhoku" in . Its population is approximately 966,000 (as of 1 October 2019) and its ge ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Established in 2004 and modeled on American

liberal arts college A liberal arts college or liberal arts institution of higher education is a college with an emphasis on undergraduate study in liberal arts and sciences. Such colleges aim to impart a broad general knowledge and develop general intellectual capac ...

s, AIU is one of the few universities in Japan offering all of its courses in English. It has currently 185 partner institutions from all over the world. Its undergraduate program offers bachelor's degrees in Global Business and Global Studies, and its graduate program offers master's degrees in Japanese Language Teaching, English Language Teaching, and Global Communication Practices. The undergraduate program at Akita International University is unique in Japan. All courses are taught in English, with the exception of foreign language classes. Undergraduate students are expected to study overseas for one year of their academic program. Non-native English speaking students are prepared for using English in the classroom through the intensive English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Program. As of 2021, the president of AIU is Norihiko Suzuki.

Campus

Akita International University

campus A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a college campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls, student centers or dining halls, and park-like se ...

is located in Akita city (population about 325,000), the capital of

(population about 1,093,000). The campus is located in a rural environment, but is accessible from downtown Akita city via bus and train and is less than 10 minutes by car from

Akita Airport is a regional/second class airport located southeast of Akita StationAIS Japan
in the city of

The new AIU campus is set on the same location as the previous academic entity known as

Minnesota State University Minnesota State University, Mankato (MNSU, MSU, or Minnesota State) is a public university in Mankato, Minnesota, United States. It is Minnesota's second-largest university and has over 123,000 living alumni worldwide. Founded in 1868, it is t ...

in Akita (1990-2003) which operated until the small town of Yuwa Machi was absorbed by Akita City. The idea for MSUA derived from Akita Prefecture's lengthy sister-city relationship with the city of St. Cloud, Minnesota.

Student life

Accommodation

Akita International University provides a genuine cross-cultural environment for all of its students. Exchange and non degree-seeking international students are guaranteed housing in either the Komachi Dormitory or in the Global Village Apartments. International students usually share a room with a Japanese student.

Clubs and circles

Clubs and Circles at Akita International University are open to all students, including international students. Clubs include:

Kendo is a modern Japanese martial art, descended from kenjutsu (one of the old Japanese martial arts, swordsmanship), that uses bamboo swords (shinai) as well as protective armor (bōgu). Today, it is widely practiced within Japan and has spread ...

Tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

Futsal Futsal is a football-based game played on a hardcourt, hard court smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football and Indoor soccer, indoor football. Futsal is played between two teams of five players ...

Table Tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

, Rubber Baseball,

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

Aikido Aikido ( , , , ) is a modern Japanese martial art that is split into many different styles, including Iwama Ryu, Iwama Shin Shin Aiki Shuren Kai, Shodokan Aikido, Yoshinkan, Renshinkai, Aikikai and Ki Aikido. Aikido is now practiced in around 1 ...

, Hopping Runners,

Dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

, Breakdancing,

Kanto Kantō (Japanese) Kanto is a simplified spelling of , a Japanese word, only omitting the diacritics. In Japan Kantō may refer to: *Kantō Plain *Kantō region *Kantō-kai, organized crime group *Kanto (Pokémon), a geographical region in the ' ...

, Brass Band,

Publishing Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

Photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

Parliamentary Debate Parliamentary debate (also referred to as "parliamentary" or "parli") is an academic debate event. Many university-level institutions in English-speaking nations sponsor parliamentary debate teams. In addition the format is currently spreading to ...

Choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

, Global Campus Talk, Light Music, Ecology & Environment, Japan Taiwan Conference, Volunteer, Service Travel ICC,

Shorinji Kempo is a Japanese martial art claimed to be a modified version of Shaolin Kung Fu. The name ''Shōrinji Kempo'' is the Japanese reading of ''Shàolínsì Quánfǎ''. It was established in 1947 by , a Japanese martial artist and former military ...

, Japanese Dancing, Broadcasting, Latin Culture, French, Debate,

Sign Language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...

, Igo &

Shogi , also known as Japanese chess, is a strategy board game for two players. It is one of the most popular board games in Japan and is in the same family of games as Western chess, ''chaturanga, Xiangqi'', Indian chess, and '' janggi''. ''Shōgi'' ...

Piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

Tea Ceremony An East Asian tea ceremony, or ''Chádào'' (), or ''Dado'' ( ko, 다도 (茶道)), is a ceremonially ritualized form of making tea (茶 ''cha'') practiced in East Asia by the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans. The tea ceremony (), literally transla ...

Judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponi ...

Karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the ...

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

Drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arrangement. It is also known as . The tradition dates back to Heian period, when floral offerings were made at altars. Later, flower arrangements were instead used to adorn the (alcove) of a traditional Japan ...

Calligraphy Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

, Mixed Martial Arts, Rugby

Off-campus activities

Akita International University offers its international students extra-curricular activities designed to improve their understanding of Japanese culture and people, and to provide community outreach opportunities.

Field trips

Field trips are organized each semester. Past field trip destinations have included local manufacturing plants, a

sake Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indee ...

brewery, a natto (sticky fermented beans) factory, museums, various festivals and events, hot springs (

onsen In Japan, are the country's hot springs and the bathing facilities and traditional inns around them. As a volcanically active country, Japan has many onsens scattered throughout all of its major islands. There are approximately 25,000 hot ...

), various cultural and sightseeing landmarks throughout

, and an opportunity to observe local carpenters build thatched-roof huts.

Home Visit Program

International students are invited to participate in the “Home Visit Program,” which is arranged by a local international organization. Students are introduced to volunteer host families and can visit their home during the weekends and holidays.

Meeting the community

International students have opportunities to interact with local Japanese citizens. They visit elementary schools and junior and senior high schools, where they share their native language and culture. Students are also invited to community events, such as local festivals and cultural events.

Reputation

In 2011, AIU received a grant for the Re-Inventing Japan Project from MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan), the first case for Japanese Public University.

Rankings

AIU was introduced in ''Touyou-Keizai: Hontou-ni Tsuyoi Daigaku'' as being the best university nationwide in the field of international studies. According to the university ranking ''Yoyogi Seminar Data Research'' that evaluates the difficulty of admissions into Japanese universities, the liberal arts department of AIU was ranked 3rd in the fields of Economics, Business and Marketing, ahead of universities such as

Kyoto University , mottoeng = Freedom of academic culture , established = , type = National university, Public (National) , endowment = ¥ 316 billion (2.4 1000000000 (number), billion USD) , faculty = 3,480 (Teaching Staff) , administrative_staff ...

and

Osaka University , abbreviated as , is a public research university located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It is one of Japan's former Imperial Universities and a Designated National University listed as a "Top Type" university in the Top Global University Project. ...

and 2nd in the fields of International Studies and Social Sciences, ahead of reputable universities like

Tokyo University of Foreign Studies , often referred to as TUFS, is a specialist research university in Fuchū, Tokyo, Japan. TUFS is primarily devoted to foreign language, international affairs and foreign studies. It also features an Asia-African institution. History The Uni ...

. Also, AIU was introduced in ''Shu-kan Diamond : Shushoku ni Tsuyoi Daigaku Ranking'' as having the third-highest employment rate among all universities, and the highest among public universities. In the national ranking of ''Sunday Mainichi Journal'' (weekly news magazine published by

Mainichi Shimbun The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by In addition to the ''Mainichi Shimbun'', which is printed twice a day in several local editions, Mainichi also operates an English language news website called ''The Mainichi'' (previ ...

), AIU ranked 4th in terms of teaching quality, 1st in international education and internationalization and 4th in student support services. According to an April 4, 2017 report in The Japan Times, In the Times Higher Education Japan University Ranking 2017, produced in cooperation with educational services company Benesse Holdings Inc., which emphasizes what the institutions offer students (graded on four categories: educational resources, educational satisfaction, outcomes, and international environment), AIU topped the educational satisfaction ranking out of all universities surveyed.

References

External links

*Akita International University Homepage
English

Japanese
{{authority control Universities and colleges in Akita Prefecture Buildings and structures in Akita (city) Educational institutions established in 2004 Public universities in Japan 2004 establishments in Japan