By YUKIKO KITAMURA/ Staff Writer
April 22, 2024 at 08:00 JST
Kyoto University in Kyoto (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Kyoto University plans to start eliminating gender barriers by setting admission quotas for female students in its science and engineering faculties, beginning with spring enrollment in the 2026 academic year.
It said March 21 that a total of 39 female students will be admitted, adding that candidates will be assessed through comprehensive screening or recommendations from senior high schools.
“The notion that women are not suited for science and engineering is an illusion,” the university’s president, Nagahiro Minato, told a news conference.
Slots will be allocated for 15 female students in the science faculty and 24 in the engineering faculty. The quota for general selection will be reduced accordingly.
Females currently account for only 7.9 percent of the total number of students in the faculty of science and 10.1 percent in the faculty of engineering.
The preferential mechanism is expected to raise the female ratio to around 15 percent within a few years of the special quota’s introduction, officials said.
Minato pledged to eliminate gender disparities to create an ideal environment for deeper learning.
“Our approach may be regarded as one of affirmative action by giving preferential treatment to certain race groups and gender in education and employment,” he said. “But there must be a system where women can actively take on challenges.”
Like the University of Tokyo, Kyoto University is regarded as one of Japan’s top educational institutions.
Public colleges across the nation are also moving to increase the number of female students in their departments of science and engineering through dedicated quotas. Fourteen schools, including the Tokyo Institute of Technology, accepted female students under a quota system this spring.
According to 2019 data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a paltry 7 percent of female university enrollees specialized in science or technology in Japan, compared with the average for OECD member nations of 15 percent.
Sciences-oriented universities set quotas for more female students
January 22, 2024
Universities try quotas to boost females majoring in engineering
December 20, 2022
Survey: National universities aim for more female faculty members
November 27, 2023
Todai to offer metaverse studies to teach engineering
July 23, 2022
Mercari founder offering funds to promote females in science field
August 31, 2021
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
A peek through the music industry’s curtain at the producers who harnessed social media to help their idols go global.
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
