在高等教育大眾化的趨勢之下，學位、證照和就業競爭力三者息息相關，因此近幾年我國和日本都期望能善用美國的專業學院（professional school）經驗，結合這三者的功能，創立新的學位制度，以符合知識經濟時代所需。日本文部科學省中央教育審議會在2002年8月提出「大学院における高度専門職業人養成について」（關於研究所高度專業人士之培養）答申（政府相關委員會所提「諮詢報告書」），明確地將研究所培育人才的功能劃分成「研究者」與「高度專業人才」兩個面向，2003年進而創立出有別於一般大學研究所的「專門職大學院」，其範圍涵蓋法律、經濟管理、公共衛生、醫療經營、法務、智慧財產權、公共政策、技術管理和教育等專業領域。本文以日本專門職大學院制度為研究對象，探討首先，大學研究所的擴增；其次，學位名稱的多元化與專門職大學院制度創設；最後，法科大學院的設立、評鑑和品質保證、實際運作、師資結構的變化等相關問題，以做為我國在規劃專業學院上的參考。

In the trend of massification of higher education, it is obvious that diploma, certification and competitiveness are closely related to each other in individual employment market. As a result, Japan is intending to create a new system, professional graduate schools, in response to the needs of knowledge-based economy era. Since 2003, Japan established professional graduate school system, including law, business administration, law, and accounting, as a mechanism to carry out "practical education specializing in the training of professionals with advanced specialized skills." Professional graduate schools differ from general graduate schools in many ways such as degree names, curricula, etc. This paper intends (1) to explore the background of graduate school expansion, (2) to figure out the diversity of graduate school degree, (3) to analyze the evaluation, quality assurance, operation and the change of professorate in the current law school system.