Prospective Student
The Secret to KUISs' Education Success: Close, Meaningful Student-Advisor Relationships
Having a supportive faculty advisor is an essential part of a KUISs education. By working with an experienced educator, academic expert, and caring teacher, students benefit from a level of support rare in higher education. Case in point: unlike in most other universities worldwide, KUISs has very few adjunct and part-time faculty. Most of its teachers are Full and Associate Professors. As seen from the chart below, KUISs does its best to keep the ratio between students and full-time teachers, as low as possible. Although the rapid increase in KUISs students in recent years has raised the student-teacher ratio somewhat, it still hovers around 20:1, a low number by domestic and international comparisons.
Student-Teacher Ratio (Student Number/Full-time Faculty)
Source: Evaluation Center (President's Office)
※Students from Special Programs are not included
Similarly, the ratio of students to academic advisors is kept as low as possible. Academic advisors are only full-time, usually tenured professors, who work with students on an individual basis to help them achieve their academic and professional goals. Through KUISs unique advising system, students work with faculty to develop customized e-portfolios and learning route maps that help students reflect, evaluate and plan their education in a more metacognitive way. The University-wide ratio of students to academic advisors was about 22:1, with advising intensive programs such as English Communications and Sociology being even lower.
2021 Academic Year Student-Advisor Ratio by Academic Program (Figures are Number of Persons)
| Academic Program | Advisor Numbers | Student Numbers | Average Students per Advisor |
|---|---|---|---|
| English Communication | 14 | 210 | 15.0 |
| Touristry | 17 | 390 | 22.9 |
| Sociology | 6 | 79 | 13.2 |
| Psychology | 16 | 518 | 32.4 |
| Child Education & Welfare | 23 | 584 | 25.4 |
| Business Administration | 19 | 524 | 25.4 |
| Nursing | 28 | 367 | 23.1 |
| Integrated Social Science | 14 | 324 | 23.1 |
| Urban Exchange | 1 | 1 | 1.0 |
| Total | 138 | 2,997 | 21.7 |
Source: Evaluation Center (President's Office)
Lastly, advisors are often an essential part of a student's job-search process. In many instances, advisors directly help their advisees in their job search; in all instances advisors provide customized advice and guidance during students' 3rd and 4th years to insure their employment process goes smoothly. When students struggle with personal or financial problems, their faculty advisor is often a key person who supports them and helps them find appropriate solutions. For all these reasons, KUISs has been effective at helping students achieve an after graduation job placement rate of over 97% in recent years! (www.kuins.ac.jp/lifesupport/career/situation.html)
