Kyoto Seika University (KSU)

About KSU

Departments and Courses

Departments

You may apply for one specific course/department, relevant to your major. Only those departments listed as "Art" below allow students to select electives from other departments.

• Art: Oil Painting, Japanese Painting, Sculpture, Ceramics, Textiles, Printmaking, Video & Media Arts
• Design: Graphic Design, Illustration, Digital Creation, Product Communication Design, Interior & Goods Design, Fashion, Architecture
• Manga: Cartoon Art, Comic Art, Animation, Character Design, New Generation Manga
• Popular Culture: Fashion, Music

* Japanese Painting only accepts students with a strong background in traditional painting.

Courses

Exchange students generally take 3 studio classes (as a major) and one or two electives. KSU's minimum full-time requirement for Seika's 3rd-year students is one studio class and two electives. They are more flexible in the case of exchange students.

Academic Credits

Seika utilizes their own credit system to award academic credit for coursework. For transfer to RISD, 1 Seika credit is generally equivalent to 1 RISD credit.

Language

For a successful exchange study experience, KSU recommends having at least basic Japanese language ability. No specific test score is required, but they strongly advise studying Japanese for one semester or more before arrival. This will make a big difference to your experience, on- and off-campus.

English-language support is good in most Art departments, fair in Manga and Popular Culture, but limited in Design, except in Architecture.

Japanese course

A weekly Japanese language class is provided free for exchange students by a qualified
tutor (usually one-to-one); no formal credits are given for this in Seika transcripts as it is extracurricular.