In 2002 the Japanese Ministry of Education (MEXT) awarded Sophia University a Center of Excellence (COE) grant in recognition of its excellence in graduate education. The COE grant provides five years of funding to selected universities to enable them to build upon their recognized strengths in furthering their facilities for advanced research and graduate education. Sophia received the award for the program “Towards an Area Based Global Studies (AGLOS),” an initiative to reorient the university’s traditional strength in Area Studies to engage the issue and theories of Global Studies.
The establishment of the Graduate School of Global Studies (GSGS) from April 2006 is a key benefit of the COE award. The GSGS lets students inquire into global unities and diversities through three distinct degree-granting programs: the Graduate Program in Global Studies offers English-taught curricula leading to masters and doctoral degrees, while the Graduate Program in International Relations and Graduate Program in Area Studies each offer master’s and doctoral degrees in Japanese-taught curricula.