The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI (総合研究大学院大学, Sōgō kenkyū daigakuin daigaku) is one of the national universities of Japan, headquartered in Shonan Village (湘南国際村) in the town of HayamainKanagawa Prefecture. Sōkendai (総研大), as it is generally called in its abbreviated form, was established in 1988, with Dr. Saburo Nagakura as its president. SOKENDAI is the first national university in Japan having offered exclusively graduate programs. Graduate students are trained at affiliated research institutes distributed around Japan and the world. It has both five-year doctoral programs for students with a bachelor's degree and three-year programs for those with a master's degree.[1]
SOKENDAI is a National Graduate University of Japan, conforming to the guidelines stipulated under the provisions of Japan's National University Corporation Act. The National Graduate Universities' objective is to anticipate the future, nurture specialized researchers with broader visions, and contribute to the public benefit.
SOKENDAI operates as a distributed research university that cooperates with research institutes throughout Japan. Administration and general courses are provided by SOKENDAI headquarters at the Hayama campus. Specialized courses and research activities are conducted at the host research institutes, including 16 research institutes working under four inter-university research institute corporations, the National Institute of Multimedia Education, and the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science. There are six schools, each offering specialization research programs in collaboration with the research institutes. The six schools include:[2]
The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI has been ranked highly amongst global universities by the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR), placed 598th in the world (top 2.2%) in 2017. [3] It has also been ranked highly amongst Japanese research universities by U.S. News & World Report, placed 16th in Japan in 2022 based on research strength indicators. [4]
