Universities
In 2005 more than 2.8 million students were enrolled in Japan's 726 universities. At the top of the higher education structure, these institutions provide four-year training leading to a bachelor's degree, and some offer six-year programs leading to a professional degree. There are two types of public four-year colleges: the 87 national universities (including The Open University) and the 86 local public universities, founded by prefectures and municipalities. The 553 remaining four-year colleges in 2005 were private.
The overwhelming majority of college students attend full-time day programs. In 2005 the most popular courses, enrolling almost 38% of all undergraduate students, were in the social sciences, including business, law, and accounting. Other popular subjects were engineering (17,3%), the humanities (16,%), and education (5,7%).
The average costs (tuition, fees, and living expenses) for a year of higher education in 1986 were 1.4 million Yen, of which parents paid a little less than 80%, or about 20% of the average family's income in 1986. To help defray expenses, students frequently work part-time or borrow money through the government-supported Japan Scholarship Association. Assistance also is offered by local governments, nonprofit corporations, and other institutions.
In 2005 women accounted for about 39.3% of all university undergraduates, and their numbers were slowly increasing. Women's choices of majors and programs of study still tend to follow traditional patterns, with more than two-thirds of all women enroll in education, social sciences, or humanities courses. Only 15% studied scientific and technical subjects, and women represented less than 3% of students in engineering, the most popular subject for men in 1991.
The quality of universities and higher education in Japan is internationally recognized. There are 11 Japanese universities in the 2006 THES - QS World University Rankings, with the University of Tokyo 19th and Kyoto University 25th. The full listings can be viewed here.
Truancy among Japanese university students, even at expensive private institutions, is extremely high. Roll calls are perfunctory or easily avoided.
see: List of universities in Japan
Read more about this topic: Higher Education In Japan
Famous quotes containing the word universities:
“The rush to books and universities is like the rush to the public house. People want to drown their realization of the difficulties of living properly in this grotesque contemporary world, they want to forget their own deplorable inefficiency as artists in life.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“We hear a great deal of lamentation these days about writers having all taken themselves to the colleges and universities where they live decorously instead of going out and getting firsthand information about life. The fact is that anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days.”
—Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964)
“In universities and intellectual circles, academics can guarantee themselves popularity—or, which is just as satisfying, unpopularity—by being opinionated rather than by being learned.”
—A.N. (Andrew Norman)