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Ibaraki Christian University has offered four-year courses since 1967, but can trace its ancestry back 20 years further to the foundation of Taga Kindergarten in 1947. At the same time it also purchased the Sion campus, which it retains to this day, by the Ibaraki Christian College which are both initiatives of the American Churches of Christ. It is based in Hitachi City in the Ibaraki prefecture.

In 1967 its initial four-year degree offering was in Biblical studies and English language and literature. Subsequent developments included the addition of Japanese literature in 1974, elementary education in 1987, life sciences in 2001, nursing in 2004 and business administration in 2011.

In 2018 it enrolled 2,570 students, of whom three-quarters were women. Female students made up about 90 per cent of the students in nursing and in food sciences, more than four in five in education and two-thirds or above in psychology and welfare, cultural exchanges and contemporary English. Only in business education were men a (marginal) majority.

Students are expected to "strive to understand fairness in the Christian spirit and to try to be fair in the future life", with an emphasis on "neighbour love" given practical expression by local community volunteer projects organised through the Regional Exchange Centre.

There is also a strong emphasis on globalisation and English education seen in a tradition of exchange programmes. Links dating back to 1974 with Oklahoma Christian University are claimed as "probably the oldest continual mutual exchange between Japanese and US universities". Since 2015 the two have offered "2plus2" dual degree programmes. These involve studying for two years at Ibaraki Christian University followed by two in Oklahoma. The university also has a similar agreement with a number of Korean institutions, with students spending the first and last years at Ibaraki Christian University with two years in Korea in between.