Window on Japan: Graduate school students

HERE’S A SNAPSHOT of graduate school education in Japan: The Nishinippon Shimbun carried an item based on an education ministry report revealing that full-time employees now account for 20% of all graduate school students in the country.

The article says this reflects the new strategy universities have developed to maintain enrollment as the population of children continues to decline, as well as the growing interest by professionals to improve their qualifications and abilities after they begin their careers.

By the numbers: of the 262,687 graduate-level students in the country this school year, 53,667, or 20.4%, have full-time jobs. This represents a 0.9 percentage-point increase from last year and is the first time the ratio has exceeded 20%.

Of particular interest is a comparison with the figures from 2000. In that year, 24,897 of the 205,311 graduate students, or 12.1%, had full-time jobs. The absolute number of these students has more than doubled in eight years.

QBS Lecture Hall

Of the 575 universities with graduate schools in Japan, 409, or about 70%, have established programs to admit students in this category. Most of the students with full-time jobs are studying economics or law.

The universities are also making it easier for these students to enroll. The article notes that many universities have established satellite campuses in business and commercial districts. They cite Kyushu University’s Graduate School of Economics as an example. They placed QBS, as their business school is known, in the Tenjin district of Fukuoka City. That is the largest business and commercial district in Kyushu’s largest city. QBS has 70 students working to obtain an MBA.