Grants and Writing Resources for International Christian University
On April 19, 2026, a doctoral student in ICU's Graduate School won an outstanding research presentation award from the Japan Society for Africa Educational Research. Her paper, "Relational Leadership under Constraint," studied how headteachers in rural Ugandan primary schools lead and build ties with their communities under decentralized education, and the judges cited its theoretical and policy implications.
Funding for Graduate Research
The ICU Graduate School Students Research Presentation Grant pays 30,000 yen per presentation to graduate students who present research at an academic conference. Master's students can receive it up to twice and doctoral students up to three times during the standard enrollment period. Doctoral students can also apply once a year for the ICU Research Grant for Doctoral Students, up to three times in the standard period.
Incoming master's students who need financial support can apply for the ICU Torch Relay Graduate School Scholarship for New Students. It waives one-third of the first year's tuition and facilities fee with no repayment. A few students with especially strong academic records have two-thirds or all of that year's tuition waived.
Prizes for Theses and Grades
Friends of ICU Designated Scholarships come from donations made for designated purposes. They go to students who wrote outstanding senior theses or master's theses, or who earned outstanding grades in the award year, and a separate committee chooses the winners in each category.
Several donor-funded scholarships are open only to undergraduates in their third year or later. The Yukiko Amino Scholarship gives 500,000 yen to each of two students. The Mamoru Shimizu Memorial Scholarship gives 500,000 yen to one student, and the Chris Wada Memorial Scholarship gives 200,000 yen to one. Students apply for these through ICU's internal website after matriculation.
The Senior Thesis and Writing Help
Every ICU undergraduate writes a senior thesis, a requirement in place since the university was founded. Students spend their final year on graduation research on a topic they choose. When that work begins, a thesis advisor takes over from the student's faculty advisor and gives more specialized guidance. ICU Brothers and Sisters, a peer advising group of second- to fourth-year students, also holds talks on the thesis.
The Writing Support Desk, run by the Center for Teaching and Learning in Othmer Library, meets undergraduate and graduate students one-on-one at any stage of a paper, with or without a draft. Sessions can cover choosing a topic, framing a research question, organizing the paper, improving a draft, searching the literature and databases, and citing sources. Tutors work by asking writers what they are trying to say.
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Master's students in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences submit a thesis and pass a thesis defense and final examination. In the doctoral course, students file an annual study report, apply for the candidacy examination from the first term of the second year, and then submit a dissertation study plan and a final draft complete in content. The dissertation is due within five years of approval for candidacy. Two courses, Techniques for Researchers I and II, cover academic presentations and research grant writing.
Graduate School policy expects doctoral students, in principle, to publish at least one paper related to the dissertation in an external academic journal before they submit. Faculty must tell students whether generative AI tools may be used for a thesis or dissertation, how they may be used, and how that use should be documented.
The library keeps senior theses in its automated storage system, where current faculty, staff and students can read the ones their authors have released. Doctoral dissertations from June 2013 on are available electronically through the ICU Repository.
Before a senior thesis, master's thesis or dissertation goes to the committee, our editors can give it a final check for grammar, consistency and format. See our ICU dissertation and thesis editing and ICU essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.
From Our Writing Guides
Compiled by James Peterson Brown, PhD, Managing Editor of Editors For Students. Links checked October 2026.
Editors For Students is an independent editorial service and is not affiliated with International Christian University, and your faculty may endorse our services individually. We look forward to helping you bring your ICU writing to its strongest, submission-ready form.