Japan's national universities intend to double their admissions of overseas students to 10 percent by 2020 and to also increase the number of courses offered in English two-fold to around 24,000.
The targets, including doubling the number of students attending overseas colleges to 5 percent by 2020, were decided at a meeting in Tokyo of the Japan Association of National Universities. The association, led by University of Tokyo President Junichi Hamada, will incorporate them in its guidelines for the globalization of Japanese universities.
"Unless we set numerical targets, (each university) cannot see how many efforts it should be making," Hamada told reporters after the meeting. "We should promote the quick globalization of universities by taking every step possible."