Frequently Asked Questions

There are no special entrance examinations for working persons or intake quotas for them. This is because the entrance examinations for this graduate school were never intended solely for new graduates; from the outset, they were designed with the expectation that applicants would include working professionals with diverse career backgrounds.

Our graduate school aims to have students from diverse backgrounds - whether they are experienced professionals or new graduates - study together according to the new concept of “health management,” free from conventional constraints. In fact, the age of current students ranges widely, from the 20s to the 60s, and there are many working persons among them.

In the entrance examinations, we take care to avoid having questions or interviews that would put students with specific majors or those with specific specialisms at an advantage or disadvantage. However, please be sure that you have a good understanding of your motivation for applying to this graduate school and are prepared to meet the challenges you may face in your studies and research after admission.

Our graduate school expects to have students from both medical and non-medical backgrounds studying together - consisting of new graduates; healthcare professionals such as doctors, nurses and pharmacists; as well as people from general companies and other places with practical experience; and is actually structured with this in mind. This is because we believe that the fundamental competencies needed to achieve the management of individuals, organizations and society centered on health are cultivated when students from diverse backgrounds come together, interact and share their differing perspectives and ways of using language.

We issue this document only when individual organizations require its submission, and charge a fee. A certificate is not issued for the applicant to keep at home. For details of the application procedure and other matters, please click on the link below.

This graduate school anticipates having students from both non-medical faculties such as social sciences, humanities and engineering, and medicine related faculties - such as medicine, nursing and pharmacy. Therefore, to enable students from diverse academic backgrounds to study effectively after enrollment, we provide introductory courses in the spring semester of the first year to supplement foundational knowledge in deficient areas.

For example, graduates from medicine-related faculties may take courses such as “Social Security Theory” and “Business and Management Strategy” while graduates from non-medical faculties may take courses like “Introduction to Clinical Practice.” Furthermore, the curriculum is structured so students learn about their specialist fields together, allowing them to study with peace of mind.

As our graduate school does not have evening programs, it will be difficult to study while working five days a week. However, depending on how students organize their coursework and work schedule, this would not be entirely impossible.

Indeed, some currently enrolled students have gained their employer’s understanding for working a few days a week or under flexible arrangements, while attending school. There are also those who commute from far away places, including those who travel by Shinkansen. In addition, some healthcare professionals continue to work part-time in clinical roles several days a week. On the other hand, there are those who have taken administrative leave to attend school and those who have resigned from their jobs to explore a career change. What is important is the desire to learn.

Students may freely enroll in major field courses provided by other majors according to their interests. (excluding some major field courses in the nursing major) The timetable has been designed to avoid overlaps as far as possible so that students can also enroll in other specialist courses as desired.

For instance, students in the healthcare management program with an interest in the operations of long-term care-related facilities could study design for the ageing society through courses in the sports management program and learn about challenges in the practice of gerontological nursing, home care and community care through courses offered by the nursing major program. Various combinations are possible.

With the permission of your academic advisor and course instructor, this is possible. Some students are indeed taking courses in other graduate schools, such as the Graduate School of Media and Governance at SFC (Shonan Fujisawa Campus), according to their interests.

Keio University has faculty members engaged in outstanding research in the healthcare, medical care and sports areas in various undergraduate faculties and graduate schools. There are ample opportunities to receive instruction from them through the courses offered by this graduate school.

The Graduate School of Health Management harnesses the comprehensive and latent educational and research capabilities of Keio University to engage in interdisciplinary research in the truest sense. With tenured faculty members and faculty members from various undergraduate faculties and graduate schools working together, one could say that we are a “faculty-transcending graduate school.”

In addition to various scholarships such as the Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO) scholarship (formerly Japan Scholarship Foundation scholarship), Keio University has its own scholarship programs, including the Keio Graduate School Scholarship and a deferred loan system (whereby academic fees and expenses are lent directly by financial institutions and repayment of the principal is deferred during the period of enrollment).

There are numerous graduate schools dedicated to training specialists in health management in Europe and the United States, with business schools having a School of Public Health or offering majors in health services. However, due to greatly differing concepts of social security, healthcare and welfare systems, and cultures between countries, what is learned at graduate schools in Europe and the United States cannot be directly applied to Japan. In this regard, our graduate school enhances the knowledge of students by examining systems and the current situation in Japan as well as through considering historical contexts and comparisons with other countries.

We therefore recommend our graduate school to those who envisage being based in Japan or maintaining a connection with Japan in their future work.