IKOMA, Nara Pref. -- While many national universities are apprehensive about being transformed into independent administrative corporations next April, Koji Torii, president of Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), sees it as a good opportunity.
Torii said the transformation will enable his university to compete fairly with more prestigious colleges that have roots in the old Imperial universities.
"Turning national universities into independent corporations will also give us more flexibility in management," said the 64-year-old expert in software engineering, who became president of the university in 2001. The institute opened in 1991 as a state-run university consisting only of graduate schools -- information sciences, biological sciences and materials science. It now has 1,083 students.