Photo/Illutration Teruo Fujii, president of the University of Tokyo, explains the school’s new fundamental policy on Oct. 1 in Tokyo’s Bunkyo Ward. (Fumio Masutani)

The University of Tokyo is planning to establish a new fund worth 100 billion yen ($890 million) for far more flexible use, along with seeking to increase the female student enrollment, according to the school’s new president.

The university released its basic policy for the next six years on Oct. 1.

Aside from the school operator’s plan to add the independent financial resource, the goal of raising the female student ratio to 30 percent by the end of fiscal 2026 from the current 23.8 percent was also included in the guideline.

The University of Tokyo presents major topics that its top official should work on during the six-year tenure, every time a new president is appointed. The new policy was compiled by Teruo Fujii, who took office as president in April.

For the envisioned foundation, 100 billion yen will be reserved over the next 10 to 15 years to come through donations and earnings from public-private projects, so that outstanding researchers in and outside Japan can be invited to the campus.

The fund-raising drive aims to increase the amount of money the university can spend freely based on its own judgment, as a drastic increase in the government’s subsidy cannot be expected.

Because state-run college operators are prohibited from keeping funds for nonpredetermined purposes for long periods under the government’s rule, establishing the fund will inevitably entail amending the regulation.

Fujii said at an Oct. 1 news conference that the university is discussing the issue with the education ministry.

The university said in the new policy it will pour 60 billion yen in the next decade via another fund for its students and teachers to start companies. While some 10 billion yen will be covered by the operator, the remaining sum will be solicited from third parties.

As to the ratio of women, a concrete target was specified in the guideline.

The University of Tokyo nine years earlier released its goal of “raising the female student percentage to 30 percent by 2020,” but women currently account for 19.5 percent and 28.2 percent of undergraduates and graduate students, respectively.

The overall female ratio is at 23.8 percent, whereas women made up a record high 21 percent of successful applicants in the university’s entrance exam this past spring.

“The target of 30 percent can be achieved only if we work really hard,” said Fujii. “Having the whole university staff share the goal and having high school students wanting to enter the University of Tokyo understand our stance will be important.”

Under the plan, the current female teacher rate of 18 percent will also improve to 25 percent by the end of fiscal 2026 through such efforts as increasing the woman ratio among newly hired researchers to 30 percent or higher.

Among other measures mentioned in the guideline is sending 3,000 students, 1.5 times the number for fiscal 2019, to other countries for short education programs outside Japan. The University of Tokyo will, in turn, accept 2,000 foreign students, twice that for fiscal 2019.

On top of that, the college operator is looking to halve its virtual carbon dioxide emissions by fiscal 2030 from fiscal 2006 and raise the number of permanent teachers younger than 40 to 1,200 or more over the mid- to long term, compared with 1,000 in 2020.

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