Abstract
The International Christian University (ICU) is the leading liberal arts college in Japan with approximately 2,800 students and 152 full-time faculty members. It is pleasantly situated in a parkland-like campus on the outskirts of Tokyo. This chapter describes ICU’s history, the nature of its liberal arts education, and the challenges it now faces in the context of the Japanese higher education where specialized knowledge and skills are more favored than general education. The chapter also draws some conclusion for liberal arts higher education in East Asia.
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When considering full professors and senior associate professors only, the number drops to 26.7%.
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Acknowledgements
The author would like to express her sincere gratitude to ICU 60th Anniversary Professor M. William Steele for his invaluable comments on the early version of this chapter.
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Nishimura, M. (2016). Liberal Arts for a New Japan: The Case of the International Christian University. In: Jung, I., Nishimura, M., Sasao, T. (eds) Liberal Arts Education and Colleges in East Asia. Higher Education in Asia: Quality, Excellence and Governance. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0513-8_5
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