Please do not cut university budget: student unions

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Please do not cut university budget: student unions

The All Japan Federation of Student Unions (Zengakuren) on July 30 submitted to the Ministry of Education a statement calling for a drastic increase in budgets for higher education while demanding a reconsideration of the government intention to cut the budget.

With the written statement, Zengakuren representatives made representations to parliamentarians of each political party as well.

A student of Tokyo Gakugei University said, “Study courses are disappearing one after another because of cuts in the university budget. It is projected that our cafeteria will collapse if an earthquake of six on the Japanese scale occurs, but the university does not enough money to have the cafeteria structurally modified.” Another student said, “I know an art student working several part-time jobs in order to ease the financial burden on her family.”

Receiving their visit, Japanese Communist Party House of Representative Miyamoto Takeshi said, “The JCP is ready to cooperate with universities in regard to the financial crisis. Working together with them, the JCP will demand that the government increase the budget.”

The government is calling on the Education Ministry to cut its budget request for the next fiscal year by ten percent, which includes science research grants and subsidies to both national and private universities. If implemented, the national university corporations will have to increase their yearly tuition fees by an average of 200,000 yen.

- Akahata, July 31, 2010