History
Toward the Ideal Comprehensive Women’s Educational Institution
Sugiyama Women’s Vocational School, established in 1930, was the predecessor to Sugiyama Jogakuen University. With the reform of the educational system in the postwar period, the University came into being in 1949 as one of the universities under the new system of education and was the first university in Japan to have a Home Economics School. Since then, in keeping with its educational philosophy “nurturing humanity” and being the most prestigious women’s comprehensive educational institution, the university continues with the human education, the reason of Sugiyama Jogakuen’s own existence.
Japan’s Unique Women’s University with Seven Undergraduate Programs
The University started as a single-department college with the School of Home Economics and established a Junior College in 1969. The School of Literature was established in 1972, and the School of Human Sciences in 1987.
In 1991, the Faculty of Home Economics was reorganized and renamed the Faculty of Life Studies, and two departments, the Department of Food and Nutrition (now the Department of Human Nutrition) and the Department of Human Environment (now the Department of Human Environmental Design), and the University established the Department of Social Sciences. In 2000, the Junior College was abolished and the Faculty of Culture and Information Studies was established due to an increase in the number of female students wishing to attend a 4-year university. In 2024, the Faculty of International Communication was reorganized into the Faculty of Foreign Languages, the Faculty of Human Relations into the Faculty of Human Symbiosis, and the Faculty of Culture and Information Studies into the Faculty of Information and Society.
The Graduate School of Home Economics (now the Graduate School of Life Sciences) was established in 1977 and the Graduate School of Human Sciences in 1996, both of which offer advanced education and research. The Graduate School of Contemporary Management and the Graduate School of Education were established in 2014 to conduct advanced education and research.
Currently, the University has developed into a comprehensive women’s university with seven undergraduate programs and four graduate programs on two campuses, Hoshigaoka Campus and Nisshin Campus.