Last year I graduated from a Japanese online university. (often referred as a correspondence university)
I was surprised that no one else seems to have shared what it’s like to be a Japanese online university student or discussed the challenges and odds of earning a Bachelor’s Degree from such an institution, especially in English.
So, I decided to write about my experience as a reference for anyone who might be interested or considering enrolling from overseas!
note: Since English isn't my native language, I rely on ChatGPT for corrections.
How a Japanese University Usually Works
First of all, in a Japanese university, you typically need to earn a minimum of 124 credits to graduate. Since I graduated from a two-year vocational/technical college over a decade ago, I didn’t start as a freshman. The university accepted all 62 credits from my previous college, which accounted for 50% of the required credits!
Additionally, they accepted my TOEIC score (an international standardized test of English language proficiency for non-native speakers) as 8 credits. This meant I could start with a total of 70 credits. Not bad for a former college drop-out, right?
Why I Enrolled in SANNO University
There are over 40 online universities in Japan as of January 2025.
SANNO University is located in Tokyo, Japan.
SANNO offers both on-campus and online education, but what's intereting about SANNO is that they have more online students than on-campus students.
Here are the two reasons why I chose SANNO:
First: SANNO has the highest graduation rate among all Japanese online universities. 55.7% of students who started as freshmen graduate, while 72.2% of those who transferred as juniors graduate.
Second: SANNO offers reasonable and fair tuition fees, ¥200,000 per year (textbooks included!).
Age Demographic at SANNO University
The largest age demographic among SANNO University students is in their 40s (27%), followed by those in the 18-22 age range (23%), 30s (20%), 50s (14%), and 60 and over (3%).
The reason the 40s demographic is the largest is that Japan’s median age is 49.5 years (as of 2023), and the majority of people I met were in their mid to late 40s.
I think this is a positive aspect because it shows that it’s never too late to return to college!
SANNO University Offers Many Majors to Choose from
Currently, SANNO offers 9 different majors: Business Management, Tax and Accounting Management, Human Resource and Organizational Management, Business Fundamentals, Sports-Based Management, Healthcare and Welfare Management, Financial Planning (FP), and Psychological Counseling.
I majored in Psychology and Business Management because of my experience with online psychological counseling during COVID, which inspired me to learn more about this field.
However, I don’t feel that I studied psychology enough during my time at SANNO, especially since the program was only two years long.
Continued to Part 2...
今年の3月17日に産能大学通信教育課程の学位授与式に参加してからちょうど半年が経過しました。
