Messages from the Dean

Kobe University celebrated its 123th anniversary in 2025. The Faculty of Health Sciences in the School of Medicine is a comparatively new faculty compared with others in Kobe University, having been established in 1994. It offers four majors, comprising Nursing Sciences, Medical Technology, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and has trained numerous outstanding nurses, nurse midwives, public health nurses, clinical laboratory technicians, physiotherapists, and occupational therapists for work on the front line of healthcare. A feature of the Faculty of Health Sciences is that in addition to students who go on to obtain national qualifications and work as specialist medical professionals, many others find jobs in government agencies, educational institutions, research institutes, international health organizations, and companies concerned with health sciences.

Features of teaching in the Faculty of Health Sciences include:

(1) The Faculty of Health Sciences provides education for undergraduate students. Students receive interprofessional education (IPE) that prepares them to work in medical teams in collaboration with members of many other healthcare professions, and the faculty has a history of its graduates going on to engage in interprofessional work (IPW).

(2) We train medical specialists who possess a high level of expertise and a wide range of knowledge. Please note that, in the Nursing Sciences course, nurse midwifery and public health nursing training has been transferred to the Graduate School, and during undergraduate study students acquire a thorough grounding in nursing science, from its fundamentals to its application.

(3) Fourth-year students spend a significant amount of time on a supervised graduation research project, which not only gives them a taste of high-level research but also provides the foundation for a wide range of future options.

Undergraduate students take a large number of lectures and practical courses, and as their knowledge and scholarship increases, in recent years an increasing number of students have gone on to graduate school to broaden and deepen their studies further. The Graduate School of Health Studies offers places for 79 students increased by 15 students from 2024 in the Master's Course and 25 in the Doctoral Course each year. In addition to the core disciplines covered by the Department of Nursing, Department of Biophysics (clinical laboratory technology), and the Department of Rehabilitation Studies (physiotherapy and occupational therapy), the integrated disciplines of Public Health.

Features of the Graduate School of Health Sciences include:

(1) The Graduate School of Health Sciences provides research and education for graduate students. We train high-level specialists and researchers. We train professionals in a broad range of medical science-related fields in addition to medical professionals. Please be aware that, from 2016, midwifery and public health nursing training has been transferred to the Graduate School.

(2) We have a focus on global education. In 2012 we began offering the International Course for Health Sciences (ICHS), which allows students to complete their degree by acquiring credits through modules taught entirely in English. Student exchange schemes and joint research projects with leading Asian universities in Thailand, Indonesia, and elsewhere were also launched in 2012. This program is also open to undergraduates.

(3) Kobe University consists of 10 faculties and 15 graduate schools. As one of the leading universities in Japan balancing science and humanities, we are integrating science and humanities in the university, and also collaborating with industry and government agencies to conduct joint research in different fields of co-creation.

As one of these efforts, we launched the "Dementia Prevention Project" in 2018 through a comprehensive approach encompassing the entire university with the aim of making Kobe University an advanced university for dementia prevention. We are promoting this practical initiative as it links directly to social contribution. In addition, in the 2022 academic year, the university established the Well-being Advanced Research Center, which operates across the entire university, with the Graduate School of Health Sciences and the Graduate School of Human Development and Environment as its core. The aim of the center is to conduct interdisciplinary research on human well-being beyond the medical and health care fields, and to apply its findings to society.

We intend to continue to train individuals who have developed both as medical professionals and as people by taking advantage of studying at Kobe University, a general university with a global outlook, acquiring knowledge covering a wide range of fields, and experiencing a variety of encounters and exchanges.

Please note that, in 2026, the Graduate School of Health Sciences will be integrated with the Graduate School of Medicine and reborn. The Master's Program will be unified into the Advanced Life and Medical Science major, which will include four areas: Health Sciences, Future Social Medicine, Medical Device Engineering, and Biomedical Science. Meanwhile, the Doctoral Program will consist of four departments: Health Science, Future Social Medicine, Medical Device Engineering, and Medical Science. Please refer to the upcoming website for details.

（Dean, Kobe University Graduate School of Health Sciences, and Kobe University Faculty of Health Sciences Tatsuro Ishida, MD, PhD.）