Every year UNU-IAS organises the regular session of its four-week UNU Intensive Core (UNU-IC) Courses at UNU Centre in Tokyo, Japan. The courses are designed to provide analyses of global issues from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. Although advanced in nature, they are open to postgraduate students and professionals in various occupations who are not necessarily specialists in the field. The courses also draw on the research projects undertaken at UNU-IAS in Tokyo and at various other UNU institutes located around the world.
The Autumn 2023 session of the UNU-IC Courses will run from 1–29 September 2023.
The application deadline is 7 July 2023.
※ Applications may close before this date if the number of applicants reaches capacity.
For more information, please see the Applications tab.
The IC Courses are taught in a cooperative fashion by a team of scholars and practitioners comprising both in-house and outside experts. One of the unique features of the IC is that many of the practitioners come from United Nations organizations. Another important characteristic is the direct access to teaching faculty and the support provided to course participants by the UNU-IAS in-house academic staff who serve as academic counsellors. Because it shares a building with many UN agencies, UNU-IAS offers a unique learning environment.
The library functions to support the research programmes, teaching, and other activities of UNU-IAS. The collection contains over 27,000 books and a range of electronic resources including ebooks, ejournals, and UN related materials. All students will receive a comprehensive library orientation session at the beginning of the course.
UNU-IAS assists students throughout the courses, acknowledging that students may experience difficulties. Detailed information will be provided to successful applicants.
These courses are designed for:
JPY 200,000 per course
The courses will be conducted in English. Excellent written and verbal English language skills are required. The expected language test scores are:
The application deadline is 7 July 2023.
1. Review the Application Checklist and prepare your application materials.
2. Register to apply online.
3. Receive an email within 24 hours from UNU-IAS IC Secretariat with a link to the Application Form.
4. Submit your Application Form by 7 July 2023.
5. Receive a confirmation email (applicant), and a request for references to be submitted by 14 July 2023 (referee).
The application must be done in one sitting – you cannot save your application and continue it later. Before you start your Application Form, please gather all necessary materials listed in the checklist and make sure to have all of them ready to fill in the Form.
Lectures will be delivered both online and on-site at the UNU Headquarters Building in Tokyo, Japan. The on-site lectures will be live-streamed from Japan (UTC+9).
If you would like to participate remotely, please be mindful of any issues with the time difference in your location. Please also ensure the following before applying.
The three IC Courses provide students with a solid grounding in the essential theories and multilateral approaches to issues of sustainability and development while emphasising interdisciplinary perspectives.
Students are allowed to choose two courses maximum. There will be fifteen 100-minute sessions per course — i.e., three to four sessions per week over the four-week course period. The courses will involve considerable reading and study but will be scheduled to allow students to have sufficient preparatory and review time for each session.
Students who successfully complete the course will be awarded a certificate of completion and a transcript from UNU-IAS. Each course is designed to be worth 2 credits and comprises over 30 hours of teaching time. While a number of universities have negotiated credit transfer agreements with UNU-IAS, ultimately the decision on whether credits are transferrable will be made by the student’s university.
There are approximately fifteen 100-minute sessions per course — i.e., three sessions of courses each day (10:00–11:40, 12:30–14:10 and 14:30–16:10), though no single course will take the entire three sessions of one day.
For each course, students must complete the following requirements:
IC Secretariat (icsec@unu.edu)