Changes

The university’s core values of respect for equality, diversity and contribution to the larger social good are captured into its motto: “Men and Women, With Others, For Others”. These values permeate not only its academic curriculum but also guide students in their extracurricular activities. Students undertake many volunteer activities run inside and outside the university, but also beyond Japan, for instance, the support activities focused on refugees, or on the areas damaged by the Great Tohoku Earthquake, just to name a few.

Sophia University has been promoting educational and research activities based on a spirit of charity and globalism through encounters and dialogues with people of diverse backgrounds in the hope to bring forth solutions to the many problems that torment our world today.

Responding to the need to further develop as a “university in line with the world”, Sophia University has been taking bold steps in rethinking the old approach to teaching and learning. Through various initiatives it has sought to reform “Towards a qualitative change in university education to build a new future” for the Japanese society, fostering a “knowledge-based independence, collaboration and creative model” which “cultivates independent thinking and creativity”. (Report of the Central Equation Council, August 2012)

Through its participation in the Inter-University Exchange Project called the “Collaborative Online International Learning”, Sophia University offers programs towards Human Security and Multicultural Coexistence. Students in Japan connect and learn together with other students at institutions in Japan and abroad.