As the President of the Niigata University of Health and Welfare, it is my great pleasure to introduce our university to you. Our university was established in 2001 and the spirit of its foundation is to cultivate “effective QOL supporters”, health care professionals who can assist and enrich Quality of Life of their clients in the field of comprehensive health care systems of Japan and throughout the world.

Our Undergraduate School now has six Faculties (Rehabilitation Sciences, Medical Technologies, Health Sciences, Nursing, Social Welfare, and Healthcare Management) and 13 Departments.The total number of students is about 4,500 and they are taking a wide variety of courses in these Departments.

The Graduate School was opened in 2005, and now has four master’s courses with majors in Medical and Rehabilitation Sciences (Master of Medical Science / Rehabilitation Science), Health Sciences (Master of Health Science / Science in Nursing), Social Welfare (Master of Social Work), and Health Informatics and Business Administration (Master of Health Informatics and Business Administration). In addition, the Graduate School has one doctoral course with a major in Health and Welfare (Doctor of Health Science). As of July 1, 2021, there are 96 students in the master’s courses and 51 in the doctoral course.

Our faculty members and staff have been making enormous efforts as “One Team” in “One Campus” to foster effective QOL supporters. To this end, a great emphasis has been placed on Interprofessional Education (IPE) in the university curriculum since its foundation because IPE is regarded as the most effective way to have the students learn team approach beyond borders among Departments.

We would like to encourage students with scientific interests in professional health care to participate in actual fields of health care as “effective QOL supporters” in the future. We have been promoting worldwide collaborative research with professionals abroad, especially with those of Asian countries. We are looking forward to producing scientific achievements with international communities of health care professionals who share a common interest in health science and care.

Masatoyo Nishizawa, MD, PhD