Evaluation and Accreditation of Professional Graduate Schools(Beauty Business field)

Amendments made to the School Education Act in 2003 created a system of professional graduate schools to provide practical education bridging theory and practical business with a focus on developing highly professional human resources. All professional graduate schools must receive assessment (certified evaluation and accreditation) from a body certified by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (a certified evaluation and accreditation organization) at least once every five years for the purpose of maintain and improving the level of education and research commensurate with their respective goals.

The Outline of Standards present the objectives, nature, standards, and methods of evaluation for assessments of the conditions of education and research, organizational management, and facilities (hereinafter ‘education and research activities’) at beauty business graduate schools, which are a type of professional graduate school. The evaluation standards are based on the provisions of the Standards for the Establishment of Professional Graduate Schools and consist of six standards.

Each standard contains guidelines for conducting a multifaceted analysis of the conditions of education and research activities in light of a beauty business graduate school’s goals and objectives, when accrediting that the beauty business graduate school’s education and research activities meet the evaluation standards. Each standard is accompanied by viewpoints for analyzing the conditions of education and research activities based on the content of the standard. Graduate schools undergoing evaluation are required to conduct a self-assessment in terms of all viewpoints. The Institution for Accreditation and Quality Assurance of Professional Higher Education (QAPHE) then evaluates whether the standards have been meet and identifies any good practices and areas for improvement based on the self-assessment results. Judgment of whether or not the standards are being met is made separately for each standard by combining the analyses of the viewpoints.

When conducting an evaluation, it is important to factor the goals and objectives of the beauty business graduate school into the process so as to fully reflect its individual character and distinctive features. Accordingly, the six standards and many of the viewpoints that accompany each standard assume that evaluations will be carried out in light of the goals and objectives established by the graduate schools themselves and have a composition and content to facilitate that kind of evaluation.

In addition to the Outline of Standards, QAPHE has also produced Guidelines of Self-Assessment that detail procedures for graduate schools to follow when conducting self-assessments and an Evaluation Manual for QAPHE’s evaluators to use when carrying out evaluations.