Welcome Message from the Dean
Dean of the Faculty of Social Welfare
When you learn that someone who lives each day calmly with a smile once carried deep struggles, it makes you wonder how they were able to overcome them. People who continue to shine and uplift those around them even in old age, children who live apart from their parents yet face each day with brightness, and individuals who live true to themselves despite having disabilities—encountering such people makes each of their lives feel strikingly radiant. Understanding how such ways of living come to be, and what kinds of support systems and human connections sustain and make them possible, is one of the central challenges of social welfare.
At Iwate Prefectural University’s Faculty of Social Welfare, we currently have around 420 undergraduate students and 35 faculty members. The Department of Social Welfare consists of programs in Social Welfare Policy, Community Welfare, and Clinical Welfare, while the Department of Human Welfare includes programs in Lifelong Development Support and Welfare Psychology. In addition to the undergraduate program, we offer a wide range of certification courses, allowing students to pursue qualifications such as Social Worker, Mental Health Social Worker, Childcare Worker, and Certified Psychologist. During the 2025 academic year, approximately 190 students in total participated in practical training at social welfare sites.
To deepen understanding of social welfare issues and develop expertise in the field, first-year students begin with a foundational course called the Welfare & Creation Project. All faculty members take part, offering lectures from their respective specialties on what is happening in society and what issues are being addressed in the field of welfare. Students engage with the broad scope and intellectual depth of social welfare, reflecting on the questions raised through each area of research and developing their own perspectives.
This is a time to engage the aspirations you have carried throughout high school, to strengthen your resolve or reshape your ideas, and to redefine your chosen field of study, area of specialization, and your own future possibilities. You may discover unexpected interests or abilities within yourself, and you may be surprised by realities you had never known or worlds you had never seen, and find yourself grappling with questions you had never considered. Through these classes and research activities, undergraduate and graduate students work to create and share a fresh, evolving vision of social welfare.
To those considering applying, how about starting your new journey at the Faculty of Social Welfare, here at Iwate Prefectural University?