School of International Liberal Studies, Waseda

At Waseda, I am in the School of International Liberal Studies (SILS). This department pursues liberal arts education through a broad, multidisciplinary perspective. The main language of teaching is English with the requirement for all native Japanese speaking students to spend a year studying abroad. Much like UCL's branding of being 'London's Global University', Waseda encourages students to 'use broad scope and their own individuality to make a pivotal contribution to global society' (Waseda). However, of the 5,000 students, nearly 70% of the student body are from China and Korea highlighting how these Global brands can often be limited to East Asia, Europe and North America. 

SILS offers a broad spectrum of courses from biology to programming to the arts. The choice of education is incredible open and liberated. Of our 14 compulsory credits, 6 have to be Japanese language classes which I am happy to improve on. The style of language teaching however is largely focused on ROTE learning whereby we must study 50 new words and 10 pieces of grammar every 2 days with greater focus on the reading Japanese above other skills. This however, develops more of a passive rather than active knowledge whereby communication skills fall behind academic skills. The focus on passive learning is a trend at UCL too where typically more time is given to lectures than seminars. At Waseda, our classes are mostly 3 hours long. Going from 1 hour to 2 hours at UCL seemed to push the concentration of the class, but 3 hours seems ineffective for learning. For my Cinema History and Ethnographic Documentary Film class, it enables longer films to be screened, but for lecture classes, it can be trying for both students and professors. To keep the focus during these long periods, and to counteract the focus on passive knowledge, the assessment style tends to be biased towards presentations and group reports at Waseda that encourages producing and sharing knowledge within groups.

Here are my choices across the year:

First Semester

- Japanese Comprehensive 2

-Express yourself in Japanese through collaborative learning 

-Transition Design: Social Design and Design Thinking for Urban Change (Extra Credit)

-Special Topics in Design and Architecture: Tokyo

-Japanese Intellectual History

-Introduction to Architecture (Audit)

Second Semester

-Japanese Comprehensive 3

-Japanese Language: Physical Expression and Rhythm 

-Japanese Cinema History

-Ethnographic Documentary Film

The options for study are overwhelmingly positive with students seeking breadth rather than depth of knowledge. However, when compared to UCL this means that classes don't often speak to one another. In the Geography department, even seemingly distant areas of the discipline are encouraged to synchronise. Through the 'Bridging Gaps' Keynote presentation by Tatiana Thieme and Anson Mackay, links were deliberately formed to connect disciplines across the physical-human divide and connect themes running through all classes.

References

Waseda SILS Overview. https://www.waseda.jp/fire/sils/en/about/overview/ Accessed: 04.07.2018