Regardless of which faculty or department one has graduated from, there are "skill core subjects" that teach "a certain level of skills and abilities," "liberal arts core subjects" that teach "a certain range of knowledge and culture," and "thematic subjects" that further develop the "core subjects."
In addition, to make it easier to introduce this method of learning and to help students acquire the basics of understanding, we offer a "Freshman Seminar" and a "Welcome Lecture," as well as a "Career Design Seminar" to develop a view on careers and work.

First year, first semester [optional] Deepen your understanding of the significance of studying at university

Three courses developed exclusively by Aoyama to support students in their first steps of learning
For new students, we will provide easy-to-understand lectures on why we study academic subjects at university, and in particular the significance of taking "The Aoyama Standard Subjects."
We want to convey that studying subjects is not just about acquiring knowledge, but is something that will be useful during your student life and when you enter society.

Why study history?
・The role of technology
・Student life and law, politics, and literature
・Mathematical perspective

First and second semester of the first year (selective) Study specialized themes and acquire "learning etiquette"

Small-group seminar style
The "Freshers' Seminar," a small-group class bringing together diverse individuals, is an elective course offered to all first-year students from all faculties at Aoyama Gakuin University It is a small-group (approximately 20 students per class) seminar-style class.
Since the small class size consists of students from various faculties and departments, each student has different interests, concerns, and backgrounds, and the class is run on the premise that "differences" exist. The goal is to acquire the fundamentals of learning and understanding by sharing various perspectives on one or more themes (issues or problems), determining which ideas and viewpoints are persuasive, why they are so, and what kind of data, facts, and observational records should be used to deepen understanding and make it easier to communicate with people from different fields.

Direct guidance from full-time faculty members

The Freshers' Seminars are taught entirely by full-time faculty members of Aoyama Gakuin University, all of whom are leading researchers in their respective fields, allowing you to experience the frontiers of academic research. The Freshers' Seminars are conducted in a seminar (workshop) format, so the learning activities mainly consist of interactive exchanges between the instructors and the participants, as well as among the participants themselves, rather than just lectures and explanations from the instructors. In the seminars, assuming that the participants are proactive and motivated, you will share your thoughts and the basis for your thoughts on a given issue, investigate and analyze it in more depth and breadth, take detours, sometimes engage in heated debates and trial and error, and learn the basics of techniques for presenting your findings or compiling them into papers.

Students from different faculties and departments study together

Freshers' Seminars are not just a lower-grade version of the "specialized seminars" offered by each faculty or department, but are aimed at students from a variety of faculties and departments. As you can see, even if the content of the classes may at first glance appear to be specialized, what lies beyond that is a broad-based "map of knowledge" seen through the specialized standpoint of the instructor. This will serve as a guide to the "academic etiquette" that you will definitely need when you begin studying your respective fields of expertise.

By interacting with students from departments and faculties other than their own, seminar participants will learn that the fascinating aspects of academic thinking from a certain theme or perspective can be applied to other fields. Intellectual communication, which is based not only on the premise that one is "the same" as the other person, but also on the premise that one is "different," is a great opportunity to hone one's conversational and inferential abilities and to learn new ways of looking at things and thinking that one may not have noticed before.

First and second semester of first year [selection system] Looking ahead to the future after graduation from the first year of university

The Career Design Seminar is a seminar (practical) subject for first-year undergraduate students that was newly established in 2011.
The purpose of the seminar is to get people to think carefully about what kind of job (career) they should pursue after graduating from university.
By designing your career, you will be able to clearly see what subjects you should take in the future.
This seminar is aimed at people who want to think about their future career paths after graduation.