Seiko Gakuen Educational Corporation has announced that Okazaki Women's University and Okazaki Women's Junior College (Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture) will become coeducational institutions and change their names to "Okazaki University" and "Okazaki Junior College" from the 2026 academic year. Okazaki University will also rename the Faculty of Child Education, Department of Child Education to the Faculty of Education, Department of Child Education, and will open a course to obtain a junior high school or high school first-class teaching license (health and physical education).
Seiko Gakuen began offering early childhood education in 1924, and will celebrate its 2024th anniversary in 100. Sixty years have passed since the school established a junior college to address the shortage of early childhood educators and caregivers caused by the baby boom after World War II and to improve the status of women, and 60 years have passed since it established a four-year university to respond to the diversification and sophistication of early childhood education, demonstrating to society the role and importance of women in education and childcare.
Currently, society is undergoing a period of great change, with the remarkable development and spread of information technology, internationalization, and increased awareness of human rights, and there is a need for education and childcare in a symbiotic society that goes beyond the social frameworks of the past.
In the future, Okazaki Women's University and Okazaki Women's Junior College will aim to lead the way in creating a society of coexistence by becoming coeducational and opening their doors to all who want to study education and childcare. Although the name of the university will change, the university's founding spirit of "self-realization and social contribution" and the junior college's founding spirit of "freedom and creativity, autonomy and contribution" will remain unchanged, and the university's philosophy of supporting students to know the value of their own existence, grow as individuals, and acquire the ability to contribute to the development of society will be inherited.
In conjunction with becoming a coeducational institution and changing its name, Okazaki University will change the name of the Faculty of Child Education, Department of Child Education to the Faculty of Education, Department of Child Education, and plan to open a teacher training course that will enable students to obtain a Type 1 junior high school or high school teacher's license (health and physical education) in addition to the existing childcare worker qualifications, Type 1 kindergarten teacher's license, and Type 1 elementary school teacher's license (however, the planned opening date of the teacher training course may change as a result of the review by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology).
Reference: [Okazaki Women's University] Notice of coeducational status and name change