The "Humanities" - the field that represents the core of studies at the Graduate School of Letters of Hiroshima University - involves a comprehensive investigation of the many problems that encompass all mankind, including human languages and the history of human activities and human thoughts. The 20th Century saw extraordinary advances in the natural and social sciences, and now there is the deep reflection on a large scale that the fields of human sciences were not given sufficient attention. With this reflection, the Graduate School of Letters aims to undertake high level research driven by the basic thinking of the "Recovery of Human Sciences."

In 2001, there was a great shift in staff and administration from the Faculty of Letters to the Graduate School of Letters. This means the change from Faculty-based system to the Graduate School-based one. The new Graduate School underwent the restructuring and reorganization at the same time, and it has been inaugurated, comprising one School with five fields of research and education, and offering seven core courses and one collaborative course. The Graduate School of Letters of Hiroshima University has thus firmly established its position as a Graduate School in both name and reality.

The Graduate School of Letters promotes research and education in the humanities as a study that organically integrates all of the human sciences into one whole. By providing education, especially in Master degree course, that cuts across various fields even while remaining rooted firmly in traditional disciplines, the School aims to cultivate an individual student with an ability to think flexibly, and to respond to the changes in the times. To accomplish this goal, a single School of Letters was formed, and an Integrated Human Sciences Course was established with Graduate School Instructors forming the core of a comprehensive research and education system that sets models for the School as a whole.

This education system aims to ensure flexibility - for example, by offering such features as core curriculums and "mini" curriculums, a multiple-instructor guidance system, and a clearly schedule for acquisition of credits - expanding dramatically the educational functions of our Graduate School. In order to respond to the diversifying needs of the present society concerning the higher education, the School offers various opportunities to take entrance exams, an expanded acceptance of matured students, and the multiple tracks for education courses.

The Graduate School of Letters of Hiroshima University has begun to take on the challenge of a new style of graduate school education, based on its past outstanding record of research and education.