Fourteen of the 20 “professional and vocational universities” introduced in Japan in 2019 to teach occupational skills and practical education were under-enrolled for the 2024 school year, figures show.

Admissions were less than 70 percent of capacity at nine of the schools. And one professional university suspended recruitment activities after receiving only five applicants during its first two years.

Professional and vocational universities--the first new category of tertiary education schools in 55 years--are intended to develop personnel for specific occupations. Graduates receive a bachelor’s degree.

Practical training and skills practice account for at least one-third of all credits required for graduation at these universities. Students undergo at least 600 hours of off-campus practical training at business offices or elsewhere.

Each class, in principle, has no more than 40 students.

The 20 schools in 14 prefectures have fields of specialty that include health care, tourism and beauty.

In the 2024 school year that began in April last year, six of the professional universities filled or surpassed their admission quotas, education ministry statistics showed.

At three of them, the enrollee level was between 80 percent and 100 percent, while the rates were between 70 percent and 80 percent at two, and under 70 percent at nine.

A combined 70 percent of these universities were under-enrolled.

By comparison, 59.2 percent of all regular private universities in Japan were under-enrolled in the last school year, according to the Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan.

STRUGGLING TO FILL QUOTAS

The Professional University of Electric Mobility Systems in Iide, Yamagata Prefecture, saw three enrollees in its inaugural school year of 2023, and only two more in the 2024 school year. Its admission quota is 40 per grade.

PUEMS said last October that it was suspending admissions.

Operated by an incorporated educational institution that runs a professional training college for would-be automobile maintenance engineers, PUEMS teaches development of electric vehicles and self-driving systems.

The Iide town government provided free land to the professional university as well as 350 million yen ($2.42 million) in subsidies.

PUEMS President Hiroshi Shimizu said he realized the lack of public recognition when he tried to recruit students at senior high schools.

Shimizu said high school officials mixed up the different school categories and told him, “Our students are not going to vocational schools.”

The Kanazawa Professional University of Food Management, which opened in Hakusan, Ishikawa Prefecture, in 2021, saw only eight to 18 new enrollments annually through the 2024 school year, compared with its admission quota of 40 per grade.

“I found it difficult to explain what a professional university is,” said Yuichiro Okauchi, who served as president of the university until the end of March. He became the university president after serving as an executive officer with retail giant Aeon Co.

The university has been holding open campus events every month and introduced a new major course this school year.

Earlier this spring, five of the professional university’s six first graduates landed jobs in food-related businesses as they had wished to do. The other graduate attended the school on the sidelines of full-time work.

“I believe the public recognition of our university will improve as we produce more graduates and people get to know how we are developing personnel,” Okauchi said.

By contrast, the Professional College of Arts and Tourism (CAT), which opened in Toyooka, Hyogo Prefecture, in 2021, has been highly competitive.

The prefectural college has seen between 3.4 and 7.8 times as many applicants per place in its admission quota of 80 for each school year.

CAT offers education in arts, culture, tourism and business management, with drama and other activities at the core.

More than half of its students come from outside Hyogo Prefecture.

A college official attributed its popularity mainly to the content of its education, which takes account of originality and the regional needs, and the low tuition fees typical of a public college.

Professional training colleges had requested the new category of professional and vocational universities.

DIFFICULT PREPARATIONS

When asked about the under-enrollment, Takao Kitabata, chairman of the consortium of professional and vocational universities in Japan, said, “It will take time for public recognition (of our university category) to take root because we don’t yet have job placement records that we can present and explain.”

He said there are only 20 professional and vocational universities in Japan largely because preparations to open one are so burdensome.

“It’s such hard work to recruit teaching staff when you are opening a new university that covers a new field,” Kitabata said.

The central government spent 260 million yen in private school subsidies to six professional and vocational universities in the 2024 school year.

One education ministry official said there is growing demand for these schools as Japan faces labor shortages due to depopulation.

“We hope the universities in the category will grasp the needs accurately and work to ensure their capacity is filled,” the official said.

However, Motohisa Kaneko, a specially appointed professor of higher education with the University of Tsukuba, said the system of professional and vocational universities has undeniably lost its momentum.

He said he believes similar universities are struggling to recruit students largely because of their poor experience in school management and their insufficient analysis of the social demand for what they are teaching.

“They should disclose basic information, such as enrollment numbers, as well as what they are teaching so students can consider them as enrollment options,” Kaneko said.

(This article was written by Tatsuro Sakata and Amane Shimazaki.)