Bachelor in Global Studies Major

The Global Studies Major is a four-year bachelor's degree taught in English at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan, with intake in both April and September. Ritsumeikan University is a comprehensive private university in western Japan with over 100 years of history, selected to lead the globalization of Japanese higher education as part of the Top Global University Project funded by the Japanese government; around 36,000 students study and conduct research across its four campuses in Kyoto, Shiga, and Osaka. The Global Studies Major is one of the university's English-medium bachelor's programs developed as part of that globalization initiative. A global studies curriculum typically covers international relations, comparative politics, global economics, area studies, and cross-cultural communication, encouraging students to examine political, economic, and social issues that cross national borders. Programs of this kind often include coursework on specific world regions alongside broader theoretical training in international affairs, and some, including dual or joint degree tracks at Ritsumeikan, allow students to earn a bachelor's degree jointly with a partner university abroad while studying in an English-language environment in Japan. Graduates of global studies programs commonly pursue careers in international organizations, diplomacy, non-governmental organizations, international business, journalism, and further graduate study in international relations or area studies. Ritsumeikan's status as a Top Global University Project institution and its base in Kyoto, one of the university's four campuses spanning Kyoto, Shiga, and Osaka, give Global Studies Major students access to an English-medium curriculum built specifically to prepare graduates for internationally oriented careers.