The Associated Kyoto Program is a two-semester study-abroad program at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan, sponsored by a consortium of American colleges and universities. The Program maintains high academic standards and dedication to a sound liberal education for which its sponsoring institutions are known. Approximately 40 students are accepted each year to study the Japanese language intensively and take courses in English on Japan, mainly in the humanities and social sciences. The sponsoring institutions are:Amherst College, Bates College, Bucknell University, Carleton College, Colby College, Connecticut College, Middlebury College, Mount Holyoke College, Oberlin College, Pomona College, Smith College, Wellesley College, Wesleyan University, Williams College, and Whitman College. Occasionally students from other colleges are admitted. Over 1200 students have participated in the Program since its inception in 1972.
The Academic Year
AKP is a full academic-year program, running from September through April. AKP students tend to realize the greatest benefits and make the most significant progress in the second semester, after they have begun to adjust to Japanese customs and achieved some fluency in the language. The Japanese language that a student learns in the fall takes root and grows in the spring. It is no exaggeration to say that the rewards of a two-semester program are many times greater than those of a one-semester program.
Clarke Memorial Hall - 1894
Flights arranged by AKP carry the students from the U. S. to Japan in early September. During the first few days in Kyoto, the Resident Director, AKP staff, and Doshisha student volunteers provide information about daily life in Kyoto, banking, transportation, cultural opportunities, and other matters. At the end of the orientation period, students move in with their homestay families.
The program consists of two full academic semesters. Breaks during and between semesters provide students with opportunities to travel in Japan; many students also spend the following summer in Japan or travel elsewhere in Asia. The Program normally ends in late April.
Program Calendars:
Student Services
The Resident Director, the administrative staff, and the faculty are always ready to help students, either directly or by introducing them to physicians, counselors, travel agents, teachers of traditional arts, and others in the Kyoto area. The AKP Center has a small library collection of its own. AKP students may use the Doshisha University libraries as well, and access to other libraries in Kyoto can be arranged.
AKP at Doshisha University
AKP students, faculty, and staff benefit in countless ways from the programs association with Doshisha. The University grants to AKP students and faculty use of the Doshisha libraries, the co-op (including a discount travel service, barbershop, box office, food services, and bookstore), and other facilities. Students may join Doshisha student groups; Doshisha faculty members are eager to meet and, in some cases, collaborate with American scholars; a number of Doshisha professors have spent time at AKP member institutions as visiting scholars; and several have taught courses at the AKP Center. Every year AKP home campuses are enriched by the presence of Doshisha students and faculty members spending time in the United States; and AKP sponsors a visiting professorship in Doshisha's American Studies Program.
Despite its close ties with Doshisha, however, AKP is financially and academically independent of Doshisha. Incorporated in Massachusetts, AKP has its own endowment, income, and budget and, most important, determines its own academic policies, designs its own courses, and hires its own staff. The program is administered by a board of directors, which consists of representatives from each of the member schools.
History
During the 1960s, a number of American colleges introduced courses on Japanese history, language, and culture. As student interest in Japan grew, two colleges with historical ties to Doshisha University began seeking ways for their students to study in Japan. Professors of Amherst College, the alma mater of Niijima Jo, the founder of Doshisha, and Carleton College began in 1968 to explore the possibility of organizing a joint junior-year program for American students at Doshisha University. By 1970 their discussions had been joined by faculty members of several other leading liberal arts colleges in New England.
On September 25, 1971, representatives of Amherst College, Carleton College, Connecticut College, Mount Holyoke College, Wesleyan University, and Williams College, meeting at the Lord Jeffery Inn in Amherst, Massachusetts, founded the Associated Kyoto Program. Agreement was quickly reached on the essential features of a program of about fifteen students: a one-year course of study for juniors, to be based at Doshisha University, would begin in 1972; students would study Japanese language, history, and culture; they would live with families in the Kyoto area; and a resident director appointed from one of the participating colleges would be in charge of the program.
In October 1973, the Board of Directors (one Japan-related faculty member of each sponsoring institution and the Deans of the Faculty of Amherst and Carleton) adopted a set of by-laws and appointed resident directors for the next two years. The consortium gradually expanded to include other first-rate liberal arts colleges: Smith became the seventh member, in 1973; Oberlin, Colby, Whitman, and Bucknell also joined in the 1970s; and Pomona, Middlebury, Bates, and Wellesley completed the AKP consortium in the 1980s and 1990s. In the first year of the program, 14 students studied at Doshisha with AKP. By 2007, thirty-five years later, 1226 AKP students had met the challenges of living and studying in Kyoto.
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