Tohoku University makes history, tops 2020 Japan university Ranking

Opeyemi Adelere

For the first time in the history of Japan University rankings, Tohoku University tops national ranking while Tokyo Tech rises to third place.

Japan is said to have a very hierarchical higher education system, with the University of Tokyo and Kyoto considered the country’s most prestigious institutions, as they both remain the country’s top two institutions in the The World University Rankings, which has a heavier research focus than the Japan-specific ranking.

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The two Japan’s flagship institutions were overtaken by the Sendai-based University, which rose from third to first place, primarily a result of improvement in the institution scores for research grants, scholarly output, international staff and international exchange programmes.

Meanwhile, Tokyo Institute of Technology is now ranked jointly third (alongside the University of Tokyo) up from seventh last year. Tokyo Tech achieved higher scores for research grants, student engagement, student interaction and student recommendation this year.

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However, University of Tokyo on the other hand, received a dip in employer reputation as a result of the declines in scores for international exchange programmes, research grants and student interaction, and score for employer reputation, based on a survey of companies’ human resources departments. Also, Kyoto received lower scores for research grants, scholarly output, student engagement and share of international students.

As confirmed by experts, the current ranking is capable of bringing a paradigm shift in student and employer choice.

A professor at the Research Institute for Higher Education at Hiroshima University, Futao Huang, pointed out the efforts made by Tohoku University to better off its teaching and learning processes.

“Tohoku University has been making arduous efforts to enhance the quality of its teaching and research activities and international competitiveness, especially since 11 March 2001 when the Fukushima earthquakes and tsunami occurred.

“It has made far more contributions to the recovery of the Tohoku, or northeast, part of Japan since 2001 based on its academic activities and societal engagements than any other university,” he said, adding that the institution has received a lot of research funding related to the prevention of and recovery from natural disasters.

“Tokyo Tech has made efforts to reform and revise its educational programmes” by integrating undergraduate and postgraduate courses and introducing a new institution-wide liberal arts focus.

“It is a small university in which approximately 60 per cent of its undergraduate students choose to go to graduate education programmes and both its graduates and industry have a high opinion of its education,” he said.