Hirofumi Harada, Chairman

I presume that member universities and colleges are making steady progress through continuous effort for assurance of educational quality utilizing self-study/self-evaluation and accreditation. Accreditation of our association has been supported by members’ cooperation, particularly Accreditation Liaison Officers (ALO) and Peer Evaluators’ contribution in conducting accreditation. Cultivating accreditation culture has been enhanced by the peer review of the member institution. I am deeply grateful for your cooperation and contribution.

This association is membership driven. Benefits of being a member are wide-ranging, including and not limited to: participation in external evaluation in accreditation process for universities and junior colleges; participation in exclusive workshops and training sessions; subscription various publications; access to member-only website. I sincerely hope you join us as a member.

On our third period of accreditation from 2018, we generally incorporated the contents of “Aiming for fulfillment of Accreditation System (meeting minutes)” of Central Council for Education, University Subcommittee. Since there were not significant changes in framework of accreditation standard of ACCJC – our cooperate partner in the US, we basically kept accreditation standard framework.　However, for our advancement, we conducted a review based on the input from member institutions and amendment of laws and regulations.

In addition to improving the evaluation for “Three Policies” to achieve SLO, we set assurance of quality of education as key evaluation factor to fulfill and improve achievement of SLO. We installed a rubric “Assurance of Quality of Education” to evaluate.

I hope these will be useful for you in accurate understanding of the current situation and solving various issues. I believe your further success while playing important role such as regional revitalization.

Our association set accreditation standard for universities in accordance with the framework of that of junior colleges considering convenience for member institution that has university and junior college. We were certified as accreditation agency to conduct accreditation for university (Mar 30th, 2020) by the Minister of Education, culture, Sports, Science and Technology. With this certification, our name of the corporation was changed to General Incorporated Foundation Japan Association of University and College Accreditation. (April 1st, 2020)　and we have been implementing accreditation for universities as well. I sincerely hope member institutions that established university to consider our association in applying for accreditation for university.

Our association will continue our effort in comprehensive evaluation on educational and research activities at universities and junior colleges. And we will support proactive improvement and reformation of the institution, aiming for quality improvement and progression in educational and research standards. I would highly appreciate your further support and cooperation.