Maybe an interesting institution for masters and ph.d. in Design?
We are pleased to announce the new Keio University Graduate School of Media Design to be opened in April 2008. Applications are now open until December 10th for entry into the Masters and PhD program. We highly encourage students from around the globe to apply.
Keio University Graduate School of Media Design is committed to fostering "Media Innovators" and creative global leaders who understand the core creative skills of design, technology, management, and policy in the field of media design. Education will take a practical, hands-on, and global approach to offering various projects grounded in practice by collaborating with international partner institutions and research facilities.
Keio University Graduate School of Media Design provides a premier graduate education to prepare students for leadership as "Media Innovators" in the modern creative society. A "Media Innovator" is a leader who understands the core values of creativity and innovation, who can implement and manage creative activities, and who is also capable of converting creative and innovative activities into economic and cultural value for society to the maximum extent. Therefore, the education program produces international professional leaders and scholars who can revolutionize industry and the bureaucracy, create and innovate new generations of digital media, who can produce innovative digital content and experience, and who can create, edit, and distribute "knowledge", which is the most valuable resource in our global society.
Key Features
* The rigorous and flexible curriculum provides unusual depth and breadth in four important areas related to media design: design, technology, management, and policy. Students learn the fundamentals in all four subjects while focusing on specific areas in greater depth.
* This unparalleled education program is designed to nourish the communication and language skills necessary for international activities. For international students, Japanese language learning support is also provided, and for Japanese students, English oral presentation is required to encourage students to prepare themselves to become part of the global community.
* International students may obtain the degree by taking courses offered in English only.
* A crash course (boot camp) is scheduled immediately after admission in order to establish the basis for effective collaboration and teamwork amongst students with diverse backgrounds.
* The education program is designed and structured to center on research projects, and courses prepare students for research and professional practice. Thus, research and education are integrated to offer academic understanding through hands-on research and the creation of actual deliverables. The research projects tackle real world global problems and propose solutions by incorporating cutting-edge research and academic theories. In addition, the research results will be disseminated through various outreaching channels.
* In order to implement cutting-edge research on current and immediate issues, the graduate school adopts a global network infrastructure. This will ensure effective collaboration between the headquarters located in Hiyoshi campus and other satellite research facilities in both Japan and abroad, as well as with other institutions. Through this state-of-the-art network infrastructure, students and faculty members will be immersed in a network-connected multi-location global campus environment that fosters a global community.
o Major : Major in Media Design
o Number of Admission (Per Year):
Master's course : 80
Doctor's course : 10
o Degrees Awarded :
Master's degree : Master of Media Design
Doctor's degree : Ph.D. in Media Design
* Application Period:
December 5(Wed) - December 10(Mon)
(Application documents must arrive at our office by December 10, 2007, if you apply from overseas. In case you are an applicant within Japan, the documents must be postmarked by December 10, 2007.) *Announcement of Result of 1st Screening: (Documentary Examination)
December 17(Mon) 10:00 a.m.
*The Date of 2nd Screening: (Oral Examination)
January 12(Sat) / January 13(Sun)
(Applicants from overseas are able to have an oral exam online.)
*Announcement of Result of 2nd Screening:
January 15 (Tue) 10:00 a.m.
Welcome to the Graduate School of Media Design A creative society led by media innovators
Prof. Masahiko INAKAGE
Dean, Graduate School of Media Design, Keio University
We are witnessing the emergence of a "creative society," a world in which creativity, rather than productivity or efficiency, is the driving force of the global economy. "Creativity" is the ability to produce new ideas, expressions and processes. Creative activities move and inspires the human mind.
The Graduate School of Media Design was established to train the new leaders who will pioneer industries suited to the creative society.
The abilities and products of the individual are paramount in this world; this is a society in which consumers have the potential to lead creative activities. The content of the creative society is rooted in very down-to-earth, day-to-day activities like parenting and cooking.
Our confidence in our ability to be creative is an important factor in its emergence.
The Agrarian society and the industrial society produced value from natural resources. From the mid-19th century onwards, the use of machinery brought dramatic productivity gains that set the stage for the industrial society of the 20th century. Consumers were induced by advertisements in mass media to buy mass-produced objects that had been delivered to people over sophisticated distribution networks. It became a society of mass production and mass consumption. One of the distinguishing features of this society was the division erected between the professionals who produced goods and advertising and the rest of us, the consumers who received them. We obtained a plethora of material goods, but the price we paid for it was the loss of creative enjoyment. Starting in the 19th century and on through the 20th, creativity was divorced from economic activity. It became "culture" or "art," a domain inhabited by specialists called "artists." The rest of us became mere consumers of "art."
In the 21st century, the emergence of digital technologies has reduced the impediments to human creativity. As these impediments are eliminated, our industrial foundations are changing; the potential for a creative society is now emerging. Fifty years ago, industry began to introduce digital technology as a means of improving productivity and rationalizing distribution. The growth of the Internet, increasing computer processing power and decreasing prices empower us to utilize this technology to change the foundations upon which our lives are built. Today, virtually anyone can, very easily, engage in the same creative activities that were only open to the world's top creators during the industrial age of the 20th century. We now have a society in which we are able to make unrestricted use of our individual abilities. Nothing illustrates this more than the world of the Internet, where users freely create and distribute to the world their own content.
The industrial revolution was followed by the distribution revolution, and the next stage of the process is the creativity revolution. The way in which we produce value is changing, for it is now produced from cultural and social resources rather than only natural resources. The creative society brought about by this revolution is using a foundation of advanced digital technology to redistribute resources on a global scale and to restore creativity to human beings.
Technological progress produces value from creative activities in everyday life and increases the number of creative individuals. The internet has eliminated the barriers to redistribution of cultural and social resources, enabling them to flow freely. We enjoy the expressions of others and express ourselves as well by using, sharing, and distributing these resources. There are more resources available for use and more indications of the potential for new economic activities. Creativity has become a valuable activity within our day-to-day lives.
For all that, we cannot state with any certainty that the creative society has actually been achieved yet. We still lack enough creative people. All human beings have creative potential and the ability to transform their creativity into value. The digital revolution in particular has the potential to dramatically expand human creativity.
At the Graduate School of Media Design, we call the people who will lead the coming creative society "media innovators," and we work to educate and train this new category of worker.
Media innovators combine and harmonize design creativity, technological creativity, management creativity, and policy creativity. Integration of skills in all four areas are required to be a true media innovator. Although the basic skills may be mastered, attaining excellence in all four fields is an uphill task. At the Graduate School of Media Design, our curriculum is structured to allow students to attain professional skills in one or two areas of particular interest. As they do this, they also learn to closely collaborate with media innovators who possess other skills. Much of the educational process involves projects in which students work with other media innovators who have separate areas of expertise that complement their own, linking together all four kinds of creativity to move the project forward. The School has a practical program for mastering collaboration techniques that we call "Real Projects."
Real Projects demand students to study and develop practical solutions to real issues confronted in the society. You will be required to produce content, develop and verify technology, attempt to commercialize your products, start businesses, and move them through the process of standardization and institutional reform. This is a comprehensive, practical curriculum that involves fieldwork, strategic planning, conceptualization, prototyping, and implementation and verification, the five key skills that you will learn and apply.
The Graduate School of Media Design looks forward to receiving applications from ambitious people with passion and vision whom truly wish to become media innovators with the global perspective that is required to lead the coming creative society.