University of Tokyo

The University of Tokyo (東京大学 Tōkyō daigaku), abbreviated as Todai (東大 Tōdai), is a research university located in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan. The university has 10 faculties with a total of around 30,000 students, 2,100 of whom are foreign. Its five campuses are in Hongō, Komaba, Kashiwa, Shirokane and Nakano. It is the first of Japan's National Seven Universities. It ranks as the highest in Asia and 12th in the world according to the Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings 2016. The University of Tokyo is widely considered to be the most prestigious university in Japan.


History

The university was chartered by the Meiji government in 1877 under its current name by amalgamating older government schools for medicine and Western learning. It was renamed "the Imperial University (帝國大學 Teikoku daigaku)" in 1886, and then Tokyo Imperial University (東京帝國大學 Tōkyō teikoku daigaku) in 1897 when the Imperial University system was created. In September 1923, an earthquake and the following fires destroyed about 700,000 volumes of the Imperial University Library. The books lost included the Hoshino Library (星野文庫 Hoshino bunko), a collection of about 10,000 books. The books were the former possessions of Hoshino Hisashi before becoming part of the library of the university and were mainly about Chinese philosophy and history.

In 1947, after Japan's defeat in World War II, it re-assumed its original name. With the start of the new university system in 1949, Todai swallowed up the former First Higher School (today's Komaba campus) and the former Tokyo Higher School, which thenceforth assumed the duty of teaching first- and second-year undergraduates, while the faculties on Hongo main campus took care of third- and fourth-year students.

Although the university was founded during the Meiji period, it has earlier roots in the Astronomy Agency (天文方; 1684), Shoheizaka Study Office (昌平坂学問所; 1797), and the Western Books Translation Agency (蕃書和解御用; 1811). These institutions were government offices established by the 徳川幕府 Tokugawa shogunate (1603–1867), and played an important role in the importation and translation of books from Europe.

Kikuchi Dairoku, an important figure in Japanese education, served as president of Tokyo Imperial University.

For the 1964 Summer Olympics, the university hosted the running portion of the modern pentathlon event.

On 20 January 2012, Todai announced that it would shift the beginning of its academic year from April to September to align its calendar with the international standard. The shift would be phased in over five years.But this unilateral announcement by the president was received badly and the university abandoned the plans.

According to the Japan Times, the university had 1,282 professors in February 2012. Of those, 58 were women.

In the fall of 2012 and for the first time, the University of Tokyo started two undergraduate programs entirely taught in English and geared toward international students — Programs in English at Komaba (PEAK) — the International Program on Japan in East Asia and the International Program on Environmental Sciences. In 2014, the School of Science at the University of Tokyo introduced an all-English undergraduate transfer program called Global Science Course (GSC).

Faculties

• Law
• Medicine
• Engineering
• Letters
• Science
• Agriculture
• Economics
• Arts and Sciences
• Education
• Pharmaceutical Sciences

Graduate schools

• Humanities and Sociolog
• Education
• Law and Politics
• Economics
• Arts and Sciences
• Science
• Engineering
• Agricultural and Life Sciences
• Medicine
• Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Mathematical Sciences
• Frontier Sciences
• Information Science and Technology
• Interdisciplinary Information Studies
• Public Policy

Research institutes

• Institute of Medical Science
• Earthquake Research Institute
• Institute of Oriental Culture
• Institute of Social Science
• Institute of Industrial Science
• Historiographical Institute
• Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences
• Institute for Cosmic Ray Research
• Institute for Solid State Physics
• Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute
• Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology

The University's School of Science and the Earthquake Research Institute are both represented on the national Coordinating Committee for Earthquake Prediction

Ranking

• Academic Ranking of World Universities ranked the University of Tokyo 1st in Asia and 20th in the world in 2012.
• Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranked the University of Tokyo 27th in the world in 2013 and 1st in the Asia University ranking in 2013. In 2015, Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranked the institution 23rd in the world.It ranks 12th in the world according to the Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings 2016.
• QS World University Rankings in 2011 ranked the University of Tokyo 25th in the world (in 2010 Times Higher Education World University Rankings and QS World University Rankings parted ways to produce separate rankings). In the 2011 QS Asian University Rankings, which employs a different methodology, the University of Tokyo came 4th
• Global University Ranking ranked the University of Tokyo 3rd in the world and 1st in Asia.
• Human Resources & Labor Review, a human competitiveness index & analysis published in Chasecareer Network, ranked the university 21st internationally and 1st in Asia in 2010.
• Mines ParisTech : Professional Ranking World Universities ranked the University of Tokyo 2nd in the world on the basis of the number of alumni listed among CEOs in the 500 largest worldwide companies.
• Nature Publishing Index (2011) ranked the University of Tokyo 5th in the world in 2011.