The manipulation of entrance exam scores at Tokyo Medical University, exposed in an in-house probe by lawyers commissioned by the university, is an appalling act that contravenes the principle of fairness required of an institution of higher education. The former top officials of the university, who have been charged with bribing a senior education ministry bureaucrat, played leading roles in the series of malpractices, including the padding of the test scores of applicants who suited the university's business interests. That the university had also systematically deducted points from the exam scores of female applicants for years, as the lawyers say, is clearly gender-based discrimination.
Internal affairs minister Seiko Noda has indicated that the government will probe whether other universities with medical schools have similarly discriminated against female applicants in their entrance exams.
The practice reportedly took place at Tokyo Medical University since the mid-2000s in an effort to reduce the number of female students at the medical school. The given logic was that women doctors tend to resign or take long leaves due to marriage or childbirth, creating staffing shortage at its affiliated hospitals. Such a concern from the viewpoint of hospital management does not justify discriminating against women in their education opportunities. Whether the entrance exam malpractice is an isolated case at Tokyo Medical University should be thoroughly examined.