3 universities short-listed for Japan gov't research institute grant

No surprises here. Wonder where the panel members went to university.

Hopefully Tohoku University will get it and it will start the exodus out of Tokyo and back to more local areas. This would be a huge win for Sendai and Tohoku, and hopefully show that there are other places than just Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto!

The government is planning to raise 300 billion yen every year to provide tens of billions of yen in support to each of the designated universities annually from as early as fiscal 2024 for up to 25 years.

Some US universities have endowments the size of this

As much as I hate how the Japanese university system is directly influenced by the rest of the education system. "Difficult to get in, easy to graduate," they should really start reforming the way scholarships work. Awarding someone money for academic performance and making them pay it back is not a scholarship.

BofingtonToday  08:32 am JST

As much as I hate how the Japanese university system is directly influenced by the rest of the education system. "Difficult to get in, easy to graduate," they should really start reforming the way scholarships work. Awarding someone money for academic performance and making them pay it back is not a scholarship. Universities are just as evil as most of the dark companies here.

THANK YOU! Only people with children growing up here will understand what you've said.

No surprises here

Among the unsuccessful applicants were University of Tsukuba, the Tokyo University of Science, Waseda University, Nagoya University, Osaka University, Kyushu University and a new national university to be formed through a merger between the Tokyo Institute of Technology and the Tokyo Medical and Dental University.

All top schools.

Government money may come with strings attached. Read the small print.

Good that the usual top schools were denied. Just like Tokyo the city the brain drain to one or two locations really backfires in the long run. Better to rise some other ships to compete.

Same names of universities since the 1990s! Anything newsworthy about this? It would have been newsworthy if a totally unknown national university is still in the running! But no... it's all about Tokyo! Pretty sure Tohoku and Kyoto will end as runners-up in this "race".

What happened to the University of Tokyo? When I was a student there in the late 90s, it was in the top 10 internationally.

Among the unsuccessful applicants were University of Tsukuba, the Tokyo University of Science, Waseda University, Nagoya University, Osaka University, Kyushu University and a new national university to be formed through a merger between the Tokyo Institute of Technology and the Tokyo Medical and Dental University. All top schools.

Yes, Virginia, maybe in Japan BUT it says there will be "a 10 trillion yen ($70 billion) fund established by the government to bring Japanese institutions up to par with the world's top universities." Plus, though they may be "top" schools in Japan, that is not necessarily what Tokyo and Kyoto graduates may think. That is why it would be extra, interesting information about the alma maters of the panel members, who may not only look down on the others but also want to make sure the funds available get to their old schools.

Would have been much easier, faster and cheaper when just funding me. lol

China's Tsinghua (清华大学) and Peking (北京大学) Universities are #16 & #17 in the Times Rankings. It's a new world although many here are blind to it.

amukurai

Every few years the government comes up with a new short term (usually 5 year) competetive grant to make a small number of universities globally competetive like this (About ten years ago it was the "Super Global" fund, they had one for "designated top universities", now this).

The names of the universities applying for it are usually the same (its only a small number of Japanese universities that can even hope to compete internationally), but the ones that actually win it vary quite a bit.

A big problem with the approach though is that the relatively short term boost of funding doesn't necessarily lead to longer term results. The idea of focusing funding on a small number of top schools make sense, but the time horizons are just too short.

Yes, Virginia, maybe in Japan BUT it says there will be "a 10 trillion yen ($70 billion) fund established by the government to bring Japanese institutions up to par with the world's top universities." Plus, though they may be "top" schools in Japan, that is not necessarily what Tokyo and Kyoto graduates may think. That is why it would be extra, interesting information about the alma maters of the panel members, who may not only look down on the others but also want to make sure the funds available get to their old schools.

Well said moon!

Also the last 2 paragraphs of the article are important-

The new designation system has been introduced as Japanese universities have fallen behind overseas institutions in recent years.

The University of Tokyo dropped from 35th to 39th place and Kyoto University fell from 61st to 68th on an annual ranking of the world's best universities by British magazine Times Higher Education. The two were the only Japanese institutions in the top 200.

I use the free VPN Gate from the University of Tsukuba. Works very well.

Yes, Virginia, maybe in Japan BUT it says there will be "a 10 trillion yen ($70 billion) fund established by the government to bring Japanese institutions up to par with the world's top universities."

All of which get funding of some form or other from their government.

The new designation system has been introduced as Japanese universities have fallen behind overseas institutions in recent years.

The University of Tokyo dropped from 35th to 39th place and Kyoto University fell from 61st to 68th on an annual ranking of the world's best universities by British magazine Times Higher Education. The two were the only Japanese institutions in the top 200.

Thats right and thats why the government is starting to address the problem.

Thats right and thats why the government is starting to address the problem.

Well at least you admit that they have fallen behind