Correspondence colleges and courses are popping up around Japan, offering students a chance to study from places outside the classroom.

Students and teachers are less hesitant about holding classes online following the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. And student numbers for correspondence high schools have risen.

School operators believe the trend will be seen for higher education.

The tentatively named Zen University, scheduled to open next spring, plans to accept 5,000 students for each grade in its only department: sociology on intelligence and informatics.

Students can obtain literacy skills required for in an information-oriented society for an annual tuition fee of 380,000 yen ($2,400).

The Nippon Foundation and information technology provider Dwango Co. are applying to operate Zen University headquartered in Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture.

All courses are provided online.

More than 100 individuals, including well-known figures, will serve as faculty members.

Renowned artificial intelligence (AI) researcher Yutaka Matsuo, a professor at the University of Tokyo, will have a lab as a special invited professor at Zen University.

Legal expert Mayu Yamaguchi, who makes frequent TV appearances, and mathematician Ivan Fesenko are also members of the teaching staff.

Junpei Sasakawa, an executive director of the Nippon Foundation, who is engaged in creating “third places” for troubled children outside home and school, explained the decision.

“We are keenly aware of the reality facing children nationwide who find it difficult to study within the conventional schooling framework,” Sasakawa said. “Some cannot even consider enrolling in college due to their families’ financial problems, while many students dropped out of university during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Sasakawa said housing rents for students attending national universities and other public colleges are proving burdensome for them.

“An environment must be created in which students can take courses on generative AI and other practical topics from home at an affordable price,” he said.

Under the Zen University plan, class coaches will help students develop study and research plans. Academic advisers can offer assistance on studying in a better environment, while career advisers will guide students toward their desired career paths.

In addition, planned extracurricular programs will prepare students for working conditions through socialization.

Students will visit local municipalities, companies, islands and elsewhere as interns. Educational courses and other activities abroad and creativity programs to nurture next-generation creators are also planned.

“We emphasize inter-student communications and connections with regional communities as well,” Sasakawa said. “Some doubt we can solicit as many as 5,000 students. But we believe an online college is in demand in this era of diverse learning styles, given that nearly 30,000 students study at the correspondence N Junior High School, N High School and S High School (operated by Dwango).”

The number of correspondence high school students increased by 27,000 year on year to 265,000 last fiscal year.

Student numbers for regular university correspondence courses jumped by 22,000 from five years ago to 184,000 last fiscal year. Those between 18 and 22 accounted for 34,000 of the total, double the number of five years earlier.

NEW COLLEGES, FACULTIES

Two other operators plan to start correspondence colleges next spring, and some schools are incorporating new correspondence departments and faculties.

The Kyoto University of the Arts added a food culture design course and a film and image-making course to its correspondence program this past spring.

The number of students at the school’s correspondence art department reached 17,000, 2.3 times that for five years ago.

A representative of the university’s enrollment and educational development division said the art school established a correspondence system in fiscal 1998.

It introduced the illustration course in fiscal 2021 during the pandemic. Much to the operator’s surprise, teenagers and people in their early 20s made up a considerable portion of the 1,600 applicants.

Many who choose the Kyoto University of the Arts are correspondence high school graduates. However, many others had entered other universities but withdrew from them because of difficulty in venturing outside their homes.

“We previously thought people seeking lifelong learning want to study with us, but we recently saw firsthand that students’ needs have changed,” the representative said. “We have aggressively toured correspondence high schools for possible cooperation, and we stepped up our employment assistance for students from this fiscal year.”

The architecture department of Kindai University in Higashi-Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, the modern business department of Nagoya Sangyo University in Owari-Asahi, Aichi Prefecture, and the informatics department of Okayama University of Science in Okayama are applying to make correspondence programs accessible.

Up to 7,000 students are projected to be enrolled in correspondence courses scheduled for introduction next spring.

Yoichi Takahashi is an educational professor at Musashino Art University and head director of a group called University Correspondence Education, which comprises colleges with correspondence programs. He said the spread of online classes during the pandemic has changed people’s view on correspondence schooling.

“Correspondence schooling is already among educational options for younger generations,” Takahashi said. “People hold high expectations for correspondence courses at universities, now that children unsatisfied with the conventional style of schooling go to correspondence high schools en masse. We will be making thorough efforts to ensure educational quality at the same time.”