Requirements to Graduate

To graduate from SOKENDAI, the following requirements must be met.

For 5-year course students

• Enrollment in a School of SOKENDAI for five years or more (excluding a period of absence from school).
• Receiving at least the required number of credits as set forth in the course registration rules provided by the Department of Astronomical Science.
• Having undergone the necessary research supervision by a supervisor, passing a doctoral thesis defense, and passing an examination.
• Full payment of the required tuition fees (except for those who are exempted from tuition payment).

For 3-year doctoral course students

• Enrollment in a School of SOKENDAI for three years or more (excluding a period of absence from school).
• Receiving at least the required number of credits as set forth in the course registration rules provided by the Department of Astronomical Science.
• Having undergone the necessary research supervision by a supervisor, passing a doctoral thesis defense, and passing an examination.
• Full payment of the required tuition fees (except for those who are exempted from tuition payment).

Credits students need to graduate

The prescribed numbers of credits required to graduate from the Department of Astronomical Science are as follows.

	Credits	Requirements
5-year doctoral course	42	More than 42 credits from the Department's Special Subjects ( 2 subjects from Colloquium I, Ⅱ, Ⅲ, Ⅳ, and Ⅴ and Basic Seminar; including 20 credits for the Research Progress Report) and Common Specialized Basic Subjects
3-year doctoral course	12	More than 12 credits from the Department's Special Subjects (including 6 credits from ColloquiumⅢ, Ⅳ, and Ⅴ) and Common Specialized Basic Subjects

Limiting period of attendance at School

Students are not allowed to attend the courses longer than the limiting period of attendance (excluding a period of absence from school) as shown below.

• 5-year course 8 years (period of attendance)
• 3-year course 5 years (period of attendance)

Guidelines for Evaluation of a doctoral thesis and a master’s thesis (Applied from the 2016 academic year)

Guidelines for Evaluation of a doctoral thesis

• The thesis must be a scientific paper based on observational, theoretical, or engineering work in astronomy or one of the related scientific fields.
• The work must be original and contain new knowledge.
• The work should be done independently. Only when the applicant has played the most significant role in the work, can work done by a research group be added.
• The level of the thesis work must be such that it is already published, or is going to be published within one year after the degree is awarded, in a refereed journal.

Additionally, as independent and objective evidence for the applicant’s ability to conduct his/her own research, it is required that the applicant has already published an academic paper. See below.

• It is expected that the applicant is the first author (or the Principal Investigator, see [iv] ) of the paper, and the paper is published in a refereed journal. The applicant must submit a copy of the paper as a supporting document.
• The applicant must submit a copy of the paper for the preliminary exam as well. If at the time of the preliminary exam the paper has not been accepted by the journal, a submitted version will be accepted by the examination committee.
• If for some reason a copy of the paper cannot be submitted to the examination committee, the applicant must explain the reason in writing to ask for an exemption to be granted by the Head of the Department. A paper dealing with material related to an on-going patent application would be one example for which an exemption may be granted.
• If the applicant is the Principal Investigator but not the first author of the paper, statements from co-authors must be provided to prove the applicant’s status as the PI.

Guidelines for Evaluation of a master’s thesis (Research Progress Report)

• The thesis must be a scientific paper based on observational, theoretical, or engineering work in astronomy or one of the related scientific fields.
• The work must be original and contain new knowledge.
• The work should be done independently. Only when the applicant has played the most significant role in the work, can work done by a research group be added.
• The level of the master thesis must be such that it can be submitted to a domestic or international refereed journal.

If the student withdraws from the University after enrollment for two years, with the credits of Progress Report, the Report is regarded as a master thesis which fulfills the condition to obtain Master degree.

Others

• Please refer to "Degree (SOKENDAI head office) " for information about the types of major fields and the degrees awarded by each major in a department.
• A student can also take courses from departments (majors) other than his/ her enrolled department (major). If there are courses that the student would like to take in other departments (majors), please contact the Department’s Administration Office at each Host Institute or the Educational Affairs Section at the Hayama Headquarters beforehand to see whether he/she can take the courses. Whether the credits can be included in the prescribed graduation credits of the major is handled differently based on the departments.
• If a student enrolled and reached the limiting period of attendance at school and wants to do so-called "coursework completed without degree," the student must submit a notice of withdrawing from school.
• If a student is acknowledged as "a person who has excellent research achievement" in the department, the student can shorten the enrollment period and complete the course. For details, please contact the Department’s Administration Office at each Host Institute or the Educational Affairs Section at the Hayama Headquarters.

Contact

Educational Affairs Section at Academic and Student Affairs Division at SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies)
TEL: +81-46-858-1523