Graduate School of Agriculture

Tuition costs 535,800 JPY per year.

The Special Course in Agricultural Sciences is a two-year master's degree taught in English at Kyoto University, located in Kyoto, Japan, with admission each April and October. Kyoto University was founded in 1897 and today comprises 10 faculties, 18 graduate schools, 12 research institutes, and 26 educational institutes, with about 3,000 of its roughly 22,300 students, drawn from around 110 countries and regions, coming from overseas. This special course applies that research capacity to agricultural sciences, covering the biological, environmental, and economic dimensions of food and agricultural systems. Coursework typically includes crop and plant science, soil and environmental science, agricultural economics, and food systems, together with research methods used to study agricultural productivity, sustainability, and resource management. Students work toward a supervised master's thesis over the two years, generally combining laboratory or field research with coursework grounded in the agricultural sciences. Because the course is taught in English, it draws an international group of students studying agriculture alongside Japanese classmates and faculty across the university's agricultural sciences programs. Kyoto's surrounding region includes agricultural land and research stations that support fieldwork and applied study connected to the course. Graduates of programs in agricultural sciences commonly pursue careers in agricultural research, food and agribusiness companies, government agencies focused on agriculture or rural development, or international organizations working on food security, and some continue into doctoral study in agricultural or related sciences.