OSAKA—Osaka Metropolitan University in the 2027 academic year will start graduate school programs and some undergraduate courses in autumn to attract more foreign students and to promote studies abroad.

The public university, which has several campuses in Osaka city, revealed the policy at a meeting held in February by the Osaka prefectural and municipal governments.

“I hope the university will pursue its own characteristics and start by adjusting to international standards by starting the school year in the fall,” Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura said at the meeting.

The goal for the switch from spring to autumn is to match the starting times of overseas schools, making it easier for international students to enroll at the university and for Japanese students to study abroad.

The university’s seven graduate school programs have already introduced fall enrollment in parallel with spring enrollment.

Under the new policy, the university hopes to expand the autumn system to all 15 graduate school programs.

For undergraduates, the university aims to implement the system for some programs, such as engineering, and then gradually expand it to other programs.

A study team established within the university will design the system and discuss the possibility of abolishing spring admission.

AN UNPOPULAR IDEA

Starting the academic year in autumn is common in Europe, the United States and China.

A fall start has been repeatedly considered in Japan to promote internationalization, most recently during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the topic has not generated enough public awareness, and changing the start time remains a challenge.

The University of Tokyo, for example, attracted attention when it began considering a full transition to a fall start in 2011, but that plan did not materialize.

The idea of a fall enrollment has not spread largely because a spring start is timed to coincide with high school graduation and the beginning of careers in Japan.

Thus, starting university in autumn would create a gap period for high school and college graduates.

Some experts also believe an autumn start would not produce the intended effect of attracting more international students.

A fall start “could even have the opposite effect,” said Reiji Ishiwatari, a journalist who specializes in university education.

Ishiwatari said some students from the United States and Europe prefer spring enrollment because it gives them more time to get used to life in Japan.

In many Asian countries, the school year also starts in spring at many universities.

More than half of universities in Japan already offer a non-April admission system at the graduate level, while one-third of them provide such a system at the undergraduate level, according to an education ministry survey.

Even so, few students enroll outside of April.

PUSHING FOR ENGLISH

During the February meeting, Yoshimura also expressed his desire to have all classes conducted in English at Osaka Metropolitan University.

“I think the time has come to make English the official language of the university,” he said.

Yoshimura’s intention is to make the university even more appealing to prospective students with such a distinction and give it an edge over other universities.

But a number of issues need to be addressed when it comes to “making English the official language” for classes, such as whether faculty members and students can adapt, and whether non-fluent faculty members will be let go.

The university also announced it will make tuition completely free for people who live in Osaka Prefecture. The project is expected to start in fiscal 2024 in a phased manner.

Meanwhile, the University of Tokyo plans to establish a new educational program in autumn 2027 that offers fall enrollment.

Under the program, students will be able to obtain a master’s degree within five years of entering the university.

The maximum number of students admitted per school year will be about 100, and half of those students will be from abroad.

“Fall enrollment and classes conducted in English are realistic for a place like the University of Tokyo,” Ishiwatari said. “Universities that are run by local governments, however, should make education that focuses on the community and its residents their primary goal.”

(This article was written by Kumiko Yamane and Takuya Asakura.)