October 28, 2015
The Finance Ministry on October 26 announced its plan to require national universities to drastically increase their tuition fees. In the worst case, students’ economic burden will be nearly doubled in sixteen years.
In the plan, the Finance Ministry calls on national universities to become less dependent on state subsidies through charging higher tuitions and collecting more donations and private funds. However, universities located in rural areas and humanities colleges have difficulties in attracting funding from business enterprises. If trying to strengthen their ability to generate income only by increases in tuitions, those educational institutions will have to raise their tuition fees from the current average of 530,000 yen to 930,000 yen in 2031.
Higher fees in national universities would accordingly lead to higher fees in private universities which are suffering from the decreasing number of 18-year-olds.
With more and more high school students giving up higher education due to economic reasons, the Finance Ministry’s call for a higher tuition fee is unacceptable and goes against Article 26 of the Constitution which stipulates that all people shall have the “right to receive an equal education correspondent to their ability”.
On the following day, the Japan Association of National Universities issued a statement to object to the Finance Ministry’s plan, though such an action is quite rare for the association. The statement states that the required increase in tuition fees will widen education inequality stemming from economic disparities. It stresses that national universities may become unable to fulfill their role of providing education for students from all economic strata of society.
Past related articles:
> Debts of freshmen in private universities hit record high [April 4, 2015]
> [Akahata editorial] Japan’s low education budget places financial burdens on students [September 17, 2014]
In the plan, the Finance Ministry calls on national universities to become less dependent on state subsidies through charging higher tuitions and collecting more donations and private funds. However, universities located in rural areas and humanities colleges have difficulties in attracting funding from business enterprises. If trying to strengthen their ability to generate income only by increases in tuitions, those educational institutions will have to raise their tuition fees from the current average of 530,000 yen to 930,000 yen in 2031.
Higher fees in national universities would accordingly lead to higher fees in private universities which are suffering from the decreasing number of 18-year-olds.
With more and more high school students giving up higher education due to economic reasons, the Finance Ministry’s call for a higher tuition fee is unacceptable and goes against Article 26 of the Constitution which stipulates that all people shall have the “right to receive an equal education correspondent to their ability”.
On the following day, the Japan Association of National Universities issued a statement to object to the Finance Ministry’s plan, though such an action is quite rare for the association. The statement states that the required increase in tuition fees will widen education inequality stemming from economic disparities. It stresses that national universities may become unable to fulfill their role of providing education for students from all economic strata of society.
Past related articles:
> Debts of freshmen in private universities hit record high [April 4, 2015]
> [Akahata editorial] Japan’s low education budget places financial burdens on students [September 17, 2014]
