Photo/Illutration Kyosuke Nagata, president of the Japan Association of National Universities and the University of Tsukuba, center, explains on June 12 their request to the education ministry. (Fumio Masutani)

The Japan Association of National Universities called on the education ministry to enhance scholarship programs to help students pursue their studies abroad as costs for overseas travel escalate.

In April, the government’s Council for the Creation of Future Education compiled its second proposal in which it stated the aim of increasing the number of Japanese students studying abroad from around 220,000 per year before the COVID-19 pandemic to 500,000 annually by 2033.

The government is urging universities to promote the initiative.

However, energy prices surging due partly to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, along with the weak yen, have contributed to escalating travel costs, such as for airfare, accommodations and local expenses.

The cost surges have forced many students to abandon their plans of studying abroad or participating in university-organized programs, the association said.

In response, the association made the urgent request to the ministry on June 12, calling for the need to improve scholarship programs for those studying abroad.

Rising expenses resulting from inflation in Japan is also adversely affecting the overall ability of national universities to compete globally.

“Government support is indispensable for strengthening the international competitiveness of national universities,” said Kyosuke Nagata, president of the Japan Association of National Universities and the University of Tsukuba.

The combination of inflation and a weak yen has resulted in many universities reducing their purchases of research materials and foreign books, as well as rendering them unable to conduct research as planned.

“Even in the face of global inflation, we must create an educational and research environment that promotes international exchanges among students and researchers that enables them to work hard and encourage each other,” Nagata said.

An estimated 20 billion yen ($139 million) increase in utility costs across all 86 universities for the fiscal year 2022 prompted the government to provide 15 billion yen in support.

But the association said continuing price increases are still putting pressure on the financial management of each university and called for bigger government subsidies for operating expenses for research and utility costs.

Another major concern for national universities is the soaring prices of subscriptions to electronic journals that contain domestic and international research papers and the fees for publishing papers in the journals.

Many researchers have canceled their subscriptions or given up publishing research papers.

Several Western publishers are taking the lead in setting subscription rates and other prices.

In Japan, each university individually negotiates with these publishers. But in Germany and France, the governments have negotiated and effectively handled the matter.

The request called for the Japanese government to negotiate directly with the publishers or to establish an organization to negotiate.

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