Many graduates of the Hiroshima University School of Economics, formerly the School of Politics and Economics, have now assumed leadership roles in the real world, including economic and official circles. Such activities by our graduates represents the fruition of our educational policy to strictly adhere to small-class teaching, as established from the beginning of the Department of Economics. We are proud that this style of education fosters a well-rounded human character. In light of these outcomes, it is our intention to steadfastly maintain this policy of small-class teaching as the core of our School’s style of education.
In line with the changing times of today, our principles and aims in education are to enable students to acquire basic and practical skills to deal with such changes, however abrupt they may be.

The Hiroshima University School of Economics became independent of the School of Politics and Economics on May 1977. While continuing the tradition inherited from its predecessor, the School of Economics strives to offer rich content. Incorporating many years of experience in education, the School has compiled a curriculum for students to first take classes which conform to a basic framework, later followed by classes which enable students to acquire high-level and practical knowledge. This equips students with basic and practical skills to deal with changes, however abrupt they may be, brought about by the changing times of today.

The School’s Program is divided into the Day Course and the Evening Course, depending on class schedules. Until 2005, the curriculum of both courses was basically the same. However, currently the Day Course offers the Program of Economic Analysis, and the Evening Course offers the Program of Economics and Management. Students decide which program they will participate in when they enter the university. Each program is compiled with a clear final goal and in order to achieve that goal, students take compulsory basic classes sequentially in the first year followed by practical classes of a higher level. The final goal of these programs is to foster the kind of human resources that society seeks and to that end, students enrolled in the Evening Course attend seminars while students enrolled in the Day Course attend seminars and write their graduation thesis. Both courses strictly adhere to our policy of small-class teaching. This method facilitates opportunities for closer interaction between teachers and students, and for students to work hard together with one another, a quality often found to be missing in ordinary lectures.

This Program is designed so that students enrolled in the Day Course in the School of Economics can acquire and apply expertise mainly in economics, including economic theory, history, and policies as well as finance, to identify various problems in modern society and to cultivate theoretical and empirical abilities to analyze the economy and resolve these problems.

This Program is designed so that students enrolled in the Evening Course of the School of Economics can acquire a good general grounding in social sciences including economics, business administration, accounting, and information science. The Program’s aim is to foster human resources who can be active in a wide range of fields and can proactively identify and solve complex problems in contemporary society. By accepting working adults as students, the Program creates opportunities for the fusion of theoretical and practical knowledge, and the fostering of academic and practical professionals who always have a fresh perspective as well as a realistic awareness of issues.
The Evening Course does not accept exchange students.

• May 1949: The First Division (day school) of the Department of Political Science and Economics in the Faculty of Political Science and Economics  was established at Eba Campus.
• April 1950: The Second Division (evening school) of the Department of Political Science and Economics in the Faculty of Political Science and Economics was established.
• April 1957: The Faculty of Political Science and Economics relocated to Higashi-senda Campus.
• April 1959: A major course in the Faculty of Political Science and Economics (requiring 1 year to complete the study) was established. Students could major in economics or political science.
• April 1965: The Faculty of Political Science and Economics was reorganized into the Department of Law and Political Science, and the Department of Economics.
• April 1967: The Graduate School of Economics was established with a Master’s course in economics.
• May 1977: The Department of Law and the Department of Economics were separated in the Faculty of Political Science and Economics, and the Department of Economics was established in the Faculty of Economics.
• May 1986: A master’s and doctoral course was established at the Faculty of Economics, in the Graduate School of Social Science.
• May 1989: The Research Center for Regional Economics was established.
• April 1995: Relocation to the new Higashi-hiroshima campus was completed. The Department of Economics of the Faculty of Economics was reorganized into two courses, day school and evening school.
• April 1999: The Center for Research on Regional Economic Systems was established.
• April 2000: A doctoral course at the Department of Management was established as an evening school at the Graduate School of Social Science.
• April 2001: The finance course was established in the Department of Economics, in the Graduate School of Social Science.
• April 2004: The Department of Economics in the Graduate School was reorganized into the one with four programs; Finance, Economic Analysis, Public policy, and Comparative Economic Systems.
  The Center for Research on Regional Economic Systems affiliated with the Faculty of Economics was transferred to the Graduate School of Social Sciences.
• April 2020: The Graduate School of Social Sciences was reorganized into the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences. (Restructuring of Graduate School)
  The Center for Research on Regional Economic Systems was transferred from the Graduate School of Social Sciences to the School of Economics.