The central government recently announced funding for 37 leading public and private universities as a way to increase their global ranking and competitiveness. The 37 chosen universities will receive annual grants for up to 10 years to increase the number of foreign teachers, raise admissions from overseas and, if all goes right, improve the international ranking of Japanese universities.
Though the intention and purpose is right, problems loom with the large-scale project. While 37 universities were selected, no mention was made of the other 67 schools that applied. Those chosen were the largest universities, which means more money was given to schools with already large budgets. Smaller universities or those with a teaching-based or liberal arts curriculum were left out.
The allocation of new funds included a new ranking of universities into type A or type B, based on how likely the central government thought they were to be able to internationalize. Ranking universities in this way seems to add another element to the already competitive nature of higher education in Japan. Coordination between universities about programs and techniques would be a positive step, but that seems unlikely.