Graduate School of Health Management: Preparing for Master's Thesis Submissions Early in the New Year | Kaori Yagasaki, Head of the Nursing Science Program, Graduate School of Health Management
2025.01.21
We have welcomed a new year. I wish everyone the best for the year to come.
January 8, 2025, is the submission deadline for this academic year's master's theses at the Graduate School of Health Management's master's program. For master's program graduate students, this marks the culmination of two years of research. When students enter the master's or Doctoral Programs, I have them each consider and create their own two-year schedule leading up to graduation. After that, we work together to follow the schedule. This serves as a benchmark to see if they are on track or falling behind. It helps to avoid last-minute panic. However, research rarely proceeds exactly as planned...
Every year, when the December calendar comes into view, the sense of the approaching deadline intensifies. This is a time when both faculty and students must redouble their efforts. How they spend the New Year's holiday is also crucial, as they must proceed with the final touches while being careful not to get sick with the flu or other illnesses. This year, in particular, watching the Hakone Ekiden relay race reminded me of the two-year process of writing a master's thesis. On the day of the event, we are impressed by the spectacular and wonderful records we see on screen, but the daily efforts leading up to it must be beyond imagination. Similarly, the path to publishing research as a scholarly paper is much longer, and the accumulation of effort throughout the entire process is essential.
At the Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care and the Graduate School of Health Management (Nursing Science Program), we began accepting students into the Five-Year Integrated Education Program in the 2023 academic year, and we are scheduled to see our first graduates from this program this year. As many of you may know, the Five-Year Integrated Education Program is a program where students in their fourth year at the Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care can take up to 15 credits of master's level courses in advance. After graduating from their undergraduate program, they enroll in the master's program (Nursing Science Program) and complete it in one year. This allows them to obtain both a bachelor's and a master's degree in five years.
In our graduate school, students who have entered through the Five-Year Integrated Education Program learn alongside individuals from diverse backgrounds with work experience as nurses, public health nurses, and more. Initially, there seemed to be some hesitation on both sides, but over time, the vertical and horizontal barriers have been removed, and we have seen a change toward mutual respect. This is truly a daily practice of learning while teaching, teaching while learning. As faculty members, we are often made aware of the richness of our students' creativity and potential. Even after graduation, I hope that graduates from the same or different fields will support each other and play active roles as leaders in healthcare and society.
Finally, I strongly encourage our graduate students not to stop at submitting their master's thesis, but to continue their efforts until they publish it as a scholarly paper.