Faculties

Faculty of Law, Economics and the Humanities
Comprising of three departments (Law and Policy, Economics and Humanities) this multidiscipline faculty aims at producing graduates who are capable of dealing with the problems that face today's society based on an in-depth knowledge of social and cultural issues.
The Department of Law and Policy has developed a modern education system to foster versatile legal thinking and planning skills. The Department of Economics with its low student-to-teacher ratio and emphasis on information literacy uses three curriculum models to promote problem-solving among its students. Finally the Department of Humanities offers a varied range of courses that give instruction in mental healthcare and the interaction of people and society; multicultural societies and media culture; regional studies and cultural development; and international exchange amongst others. The faculty also offers interdepartmental courses in career education and media studies.

Faculty of Education
The Faculty of Education has its roots in a teacher training school founded in 1875. The present institution dates from 1949 and was expanded in 1994 to include a graduate school. The curriculum stresses individual research and encourages the deepening of specialist knowledge through lectures, seminars, experiments, practical training, ﬁeld work, the observation of child development, performance, painting, pottery, etc.
The sports facilities include an athletics track, a multipurpose playing field, tennis courts, two gymnasiums, martial arts rooms, and a swimming pool.
Building on the foundations laid by the Faculty of Education, the Graduate School seeks to cultivate over a broad area of academic study and artistic activity a high level of specialist knowledge, ability, and insight into the complicated problems of teaching in the present day.
Faculty of Science
The Faculty of Science, established in 1965, plays an important role both on education and research in the field of fundamental natural science, as the only such faculty in the southern Kyushu area. The faculty is composed of four departments, Mathematics and Computer Science, Physics, Chemistry and Bioscience, and Earth and Environmental Sciences. The students are expected to develop not only to be expert knowledge in each ﬁeld, but also to have the ﬂexibility to meet current needs in various areas. It has a close connection with the regional community through geographical speciﬁcity. For example, the location surrounded by both Pacific Ocean along subtropical islands. These features provide infinitive research topics, including both theoretical and applied fields, especially Biological Sciences, Environmental Sciences and Geographical Sciences. The Nansei-Toko observatory for Earthquakes and Volcanoes was established in 1991 as a facility affiliated with the faculty, contributing to practice such objectives. In Space Science field, the faculty promotes the joint education system with NAOJ (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan) and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and carries out collaborative projects using VERA Radio Telescope.
For advanced studies, the Graduate School of Science and Engineering (Master's and Doctoral Courses), is provided.

Faculty of Medicine
The original forerunner of the faculty of Medicine was a British-style medical school founded in 1869. Dr. William Willis, the ﬁrst Principal of that school, introduced western medicine to Kagoshima and worked to train many Japanese students.　The Faculty of Medicine is now comprised of two schools, namely, the School of Medicine and the School of Health Sciences. The latter was established in 1998 with the aim of training medical technicians of the highest standard. The faculty cultivates highly qualiﬁed professionals and over the years, has made substantial contributions to the advancement of medical science and to the health and welfare of people across Japan. It aims to foster personnel who are not only highly studious, but who have well-rounded characters, can make contributions to the local community, and who have an international perspective on medicine and healthcare.

Faculty of Dentistry
The Faculty of Dentistry was founded in 1977 with the purpose of being the leading regional center for dental education, research and treatment in southern Kyushu. The faculty members are actively engaged in teaching the causes of caries, periodontal disease, anomaly of occlusion, loss of tooth, external injury-aplasia-pain and tumor of oral and maxillofacial area, and are aiming at establishment of the prevention and the cure. The School aims to provide highly talented students who can contribute locally and internationally through their scientiﬁcally creative practices in every ﬁeld of dental medicine. Students are not only trained in the knowledge and techniques essential to the oral area, but are also encouraged to undertake general medical subjects including internal medicine and surgery as well as general academic subjects. A unique elective program gives them opportunities to join research projects in each laboratory for the purpose of developing their original ideas and encouraging individual accomplishments.

Faculty of Engineering
The Faculty of Engineering of Kagoshima University began as Kagoshima Prefectural College of Engineering and was established in April 1945. A few years later, in February 1949, this college became a prefectural university. In July 1955, the prefectural university was made part of Kagoshima University.
The Faculty of Engineering has a great responsibility to carry out basic research on engineering applications. Also, it is necessary to train students to become engineers with international vision in this competitive world. Depending on the current requirements of society, education and research activities need to be expanded to meet the new challenges. The Faculty of Engineering strives hard to provide proper education and training to students so that they can become excellent researchers and engineers. Now, the Faculty of Engineering is revising its syllabus and course contents to bring them, more than ever, up to international standards and to meet the requirements of JABEE (the Japan Accreditation Board for Engineering Education). Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Architecture and Architectural Engineering, Applied Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and Ocean Civil Engineering are accredited by JABEE as of May 2009.
Faculty of Agriculture
The Faculty of Agriculture dates back over 100 years to 1908. Today, the faculty consists of four departments: Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Biochemical Sciences and Technology, Environmental Sciences and Technology, and Veterinary Medicine for 2011 or earlier enrollees*. In addition, there are three research institutes on and outside the university campus: the Experimental Farms, the University Forests, and Education and Research Center for Fermentation Studies. The faculty's missions are to contribute to the advancement of science and to the promotion of higher education and research in agriculture.
The faculty has an enrollment of about 1,200 students, of whom approximately three percent are from abroad. The undergraduate course provides students with a wide ranging basic education in agriculture, including field training, laboratory experiments and various research activities. Except for the department of Veterinary Medicine, two-year graduate courses offer the master of science degree. For those seeking doctoral degrees, the three-year program of the United Graduate School of Agriculture is available.

*The Joint Faculty of Veterinary Medicine was established in April, 2012.
Faculty of Fisheries
The Faculty of Fisheries is composed of six fields: Fisheries Biology and Oceanography, Aquaculture, Biochemistry and Technology of Marine Food and Resources, Fisheries Engineering, Fisheries Economics, Course for Fishery-Teacher Accreditation. The faculty's areas of involvement range widely from the inland and oceanic waters of South-East Asia and the South Paciﬁc to the water around Japan, and it aims to contribute to international as well as local communities in the fields of sustainable development and rational utilization of fisheries resources, conservation of the aquatic environment, and creation of aquatic-related subsistent culture. In response to contemporary needs,
such as for security in food production and conservation of the marine
environment, the faculty provides high quality and up-to-date ﬁsheries education to produce qualiﬁed technical manpower and leads the world with the variety of its activities in tropical and sub-tropical ﬁsheries sciences. The faculty was certiﬁed to use the standardized ISO 9001 quality assurance system in December 2003 as the ﬁrst case in the ﬁeld of tertiary education in Japan.
Joint faculty of Veterinary Medicine
The Joint Faculty of Veterinary Medicine dates back to 1939, when it was first founded as the Department of Veterinary Medicine in Kagoshima Higher School of Agriculture and Forestry. In 2012, it became the ninth faculty in Kagoshima University.
The Faculty offers inter-university curricula with Yamaguchi University, which meets the international standard for veterinary medicine. The faculty's missions are to train experts with rich humanity and morality to follow codes of conduct and contribute to global society.
The Veterinary Hospital and Equine Medical Center contribute to the local community as the main animal treatment facilities for both companion and farm animals in the region. In addition, since Kagoshima is one of the representative livestock raising areas in Japan, the Transboundary Animal Disease Reserach Center conducts research on diseases such as bird flu which can easily spread from region to region, or country to country.