The Process that Made Student Skills Education a Mandatory Class at Kagoshima University in 2020

“Student skills education“ refers to programmatic education that allows students to acquire common sense as members of society. Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has made much of “student skills education” in elementary and high school. Now, social initiatives have vigorously called for Japan's universities to guarantee the quality of higher education. Diverse expectations in Japanese society position universities as “pawns of education” and committees of the Japanese government have reported some grand designs along those lines. One proposes student skills education as part :“ a program that lets students acquire social common sense in the field at the urging of society”. The field encompasses a wide range of subjects, including “research ethics”, “career development”, “information security”, “consumer practices”, “fundamental human rights”, “intellectual property rights”, “sovereign education” and“ land tax”. In particular, Japanese society needs to improve human rights education for the younger generation due to the rise of racism and hate speech against minority groups in Japan. At Kagoshima University, some student skills education had already commenced in various elective courses in 2019, along with education about information security, Internet ethics, and dependency （e.g., on drugs） taught in mandatory courses. Against that background, following a plan developed by the Institute for Comprehensive Education, student skills education became a required subject at Kagoshima University in 2020. Some important topics in student skills education include research ethics, career development （e.g. career education, citizenship education, and land tax education）, and legal affairs （e.g., human rights education, copyright education, consumer education, and work rule education）. Such student skills education has been incorporated in this mandatory startup seminar at Kagoshima University.