Graduate School

Master course

Faculty of Forestry Yamagata University
The Masters program at Yamagata University begins in April and finishes in March after 2 years. A Masters entrance examination is required and both a written exam and interview must be passed to enter the program. Examinations are conducted twice a year, in September and January.

The Masters course in this university is not a complete course program but rather a research program. The lectures are not scheduled for completely 1 year and everyday lecture on the first year of study but it is conducted in a random day for about 1 to 2 daysp12.jpg for every lecture. Most of the time is used for research in each laboratory. This education method is different with other education systems such as Europe, Australia, or USA.

Beside research and writing a report or thesis, laboratory seminars are also an important activity that must be done by all laboratory members. Laboratory seminars can report progress of the research in a weekly report, 3 months report or 1 semester report, and also can be a seminar of journals by other authors that are related to our research. Report progress of research is a way to control the research work, research result, and also research problems that may be faced by the students. While journal seminars are designed to understand about how writing, what the recent related research is, and criticize some possible lack of information in the journals. Another important activity that also should be done by masters student is attending annual meeting based on each major.

This annual meeting is a national conference for students to present their research results whether in oral or poster presentation. All students and their supervisors from all over Japan attend. This is a chance for students to see other researches and discuss about them.

Finally, the Masters degree will be completed by an oral examination.

Doctoral Course

Introduction of United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences (UGAS), Iwate University
The United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences (UGAS), Iwate University is one of the six united graduate schools in Japan that are dedicated to doctoral courses in agricultural sciences. There are four universities under the UGAS, Iwate University and Yamagata University (Faculty of Agriculture) is one of them. The other three universities are Graduate Schools of Agriculture of Hirosaki University, Iwate University and Graduate School of Animal Husbandry of Obihiro University. For entry to UGAS, Iwate University, there are two sessions- April and October session. Every student is usually required to attend for 3 years in order to earn at least 12 academic credits, and then to submit a doctoral thesis to the school. Among the 12 credits, 8 credits need to be fulfilled by compulsory or mandatory courses and 4 credits by elective courses. The mandatory credits are to be achieved by attending communication for science course (1 credit), advanced seminar on science (1 credit) and advanced research on science (6 credits). elective courses are, special lecture on agricultural science, advanced science of bioproduction or bioresources or biotic environment, seminar on English for communication, research internship, presentation and communication in international society, statistics for practical purposes, special lecture for continuing education, education and research supervision on science. One must pass the examination of the doctoral thesis and the final academic ability test by an examination committee organized by this school. When the above requirements are completed, one will be conferred a doctoral degree (Agricultural Sciences, or Philosophy) by Iwate University. Especially excellent students (recognized as such by this school) will be conferred the doctoral degree after having passed 3 years of studies including 2 years of studies in a master course.