Newly established for the fall semester of 2027… Capacity: 100 people, half of whom are international students
Local media reported on the 19th that the University of Tokyo, considered one of the best universities in Japan, plans to establish a new five-year integrated liberal arts and sciences program.
According to the Yomiuri Shimbun and Nippon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei), the University of Tokyo has decided to establish a new curriculum in the fall semester of 2027.
The new course is an integrated form of liberal arts and science that makes full use of educational and research resources ranging from medicine to literature. The name is ‘College of Design’ and it is a 5-year program that combines 4 years of bachelor’s degree and 1 year of master’s degree.
The admission capacity is 100 students. Half of them are expected to accommodate overseas students.
Existing University of Tokyo undergraduate students will also be able to take this course.
In particular, the curriculum allows students to design it according to their own interests without being bound by the framework of liberal arts and sciences. It allows for corporate internships and study abroad for one year.
The idea is to foster talent who can come up with solutions to global problems that are difficult to solve in existing academic fields, such as climate change and biodiversity. Because our goal is to foster world-class researchers, we plan to conduct all classes in English.
According to Yomiuri, the reason behind the University of Tokyo’s establishment of a five-year curriculum is a sense of crisis that it is falling behind leading foreign universities in terms of internationalization and diversity.
The University of Tokyo has been internationalizing itself by establishing a fall semester admissions course for international students in 2012.
However, the proportion of international students in universities is only about 2%. English classes at the undergraduate level are limited, making it difficult to be selected as an option for studying abroad.
Student diversity is also a challenge. Many of those accepted to the University of Tokyo are men who took the same middle and high school courses in the metropolitan area. The female ratio has stagnated to around 20%.
The University of Tokyo is setting goals such as 30% of undergraduate international students and 40% of female faculty by 2049, 25 years from now.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.