English version

Otaru University of Commerce is and has been a center of social sciences and human arts in the north district of Japan. Reflecting its history that it was established as a higher commercial school, the university has been emphasizing the connection of theory to application, not to mention a solid academic foundation. Its strength in the field of foreign language education is one of the consequences of this practical attitude. Both in business and academic activities, fluency in foreign languages is critically important.
　

The size of Otaru University of Commerce has been kept small, whichenables close communication within its academic community. In each year,there are about fivehundred undergraduate students at the day school, fifty at thenight school and forty five on the mastercourse. Students can also receive benefitfrom a relatively high number of professors. The ratio of the total number of students to the number of faculty is atthe lowest in Japan. Each student at Otaru University of Commerce has twice or even five times more academicstaff than students at private universities　in the Tokyo area.
The quality of the academic staff at Otaru University of Commerce is known as belonging to the top level in Japan. Arecent measure of the contribution tointernationally valued journals in the　area of economics shows that the university is ranked in the top ten to top twenty. Interactive education through seminars is one of the characteristics of the university and all the students have achance to keep in touch with the faculty.
This close connection continues aftergraduation. The solid foundation of thealumni society contributes to their ownbusiness activities and also to the academic activities of students and the university.
　