Doctoral Program
Ⅰ. Background
Tokyo University of the Arts (as known as Geidai) established its doctoral programs in 1977 and began conferring degrees in 1982. With the aim to improve the quality of graduate schools in the 1990s, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan introduced a policy that significantly increased the number of doctoral students in Japan. Due to this increase, enhancements were made to the programs at Geidai. Since then, Geidai has modified its program regulations several times; however, 30 years had elapsed since the first doctoral programs were established and there was an increasing need to reexamine their basic structures. Thus, Geidai founded the Research Center for Graduate Schools in 2008 and conducted a five-year research project, examin inginternational doctoral programs in the fields of Fine Arts, Music, and Film and New Media.
Since the inception of doctoral programs at Geidai, the graduate school regulations have specified that course completion would require a doctoral dissertation and additional artistic works or performance in practice-oriented courses (Graduate School Regulations, Articles 5 and 19). In other words, we acknowledged that in addition to conducting dissertation research, a high level of artistic achievement was crucial for completing our doctoral program.
However, the concept had not been sufficiently adopted since the format of the doctoral regulations and program management were based on that of a traditionally structured doctoral program that focused on dissertation research. In addition, artistic practice and dissertation research have been viewed as independent and separate endeavors. Therefore, a program guideline explicitly defining the link between artistic practice and dissertation research was necessary.
Interestingly, program research conducted by the Research Center for Graduate Schools has recently revealed that an increasing number of graduate schools in Europe and the United States have introduced doctoral programs that emphasize both artistic achievement and research accomplishment, which is same approach that Geidai outlined more than 30 years ago. What is particularly noteworthy is that practice-based research, which links actual practice and research, has even developed in Europe and new types of doctoral programs are being established around the world. Seemingly, international discussions on this new type of research are proceeding.
It is often stated that artistic creation is primary in the arts, and an artist conducts some type of research in the process of such creation. On the other hand, creative activities and innovativeness are also indispensable in academic research, especially atadvanced levels. Practice-based research in artistic fields has increased based on recent evaluations of areas in that the researchminded nature of artistic practice has overlapped the creative nature of academic research.
The practice-based doctoral program described here was created after the current doctoral programs at Geidai were re-evaluated by the Research Center for Graduate Schools. The programs have also been upgraded in consideration of recent developments in information technology. The following includes the program overview and basic philosophy, guidelines for the three doctoral programs, and practice-based doctoral program manual (FAQ).
