Education is one of the most important things a country should prioritize because having educated citizens will ultimately push that particular country to develop in ways you can only dream of. Japan is a country that is well-known for things like their scenic views, delicious cuisine, and amazing culture but what a majority of people don’t know about Japan is that it is also progressive in terms of education. A perfect example to prove this claim is the existence of the Kyoto University, also known as the Kyodai.
The History of Kyoto University and the Establishments Found Here Like the University Hospital
Way before it was called the Kyoto Imperial University, the Kyoto University was a Chemistry School found in Osaka in the year of 1869. It moved to where the main campus is presently located in the year of 1897. Back then, it was founded because of the Imperial Ordinance 209. It is one of the seven national universities in Japan and initially, it was only composed of 4 colleges which were namely College of Law, Medicine, Letters, and Science and Engineering.
Within the decade after it was founded, the university had already grown quite a bit by opening up establishments like the university library as well as the university hospital. In the year of 1914, the College of Science and Engineering were separated into two colleges which were the College of Science and the College of Engineering. They divided these two colleges to provide more space for their students at that time. These names did not last long though because in the year of 1919, the Imperial University Law was enacted and it basically renamed all colleges into faculties. In that same year, the Faculty of Economics was also established as a new addition to the Kyoto Imperial University.
A couple of years after that, another addition came in the form of the Faculty of Agriculture. With this faculty opening, certain areas of the university campus were turned into the experimental farm and university forest. The progress continued in the year of 1926 because it was in this year that the Institute of Chemical Research was established. It would be quite a while before a new addition to the university was to be made because it was in the year 1936 that a new institute would be established and this was the Institute for Research in Humanities.
The establishment of this institute triggered the continuous establishment of more institutes until the year of 1946. These institutes were namely the Tuberculosis Research Institute, Engineering Research Institute, Wood Research Institute, and Research Institute of Food Science. A majority of these institutes would eventually be renamed though. What used to be the Tuberculosis Research Institute was renamed Chest Disease Research Institute and then renamed once again to the Institute of Frontier Medical Sciences. The same thing happened with the Engineering Research Institute because it was renamed twice as well. It was changed to the Institute of Atomic Energy and then later renamed again to the Institute of Advanced Energy. The Wood Research Institute was renamed to the Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere in the year of 2004 while the Research Institute for Food Science closed due to a merge with the Graduate School of Agriculture in the year of 2001.
In 1947, the university changed its name from Kyoto Imperial University to Kyoto University and by now, you would have probably noticed a pattern with this university. All the additions and changes it makes is always propelled by the purpose to excel. From the time it was founded until this present day, more and more institutes and divisions of research have been introduced to this university. You can literally find an establishment for any interest you might have. They have a Disaster Prevention Research Institute for those who wish to improve the emergency protocols during natural disasters and more. They have a Wildlife Research Center for those who wish to work towards the preservation of wildlife. These are only a couple of the unique research centers and institutes you can find here yet their existence alone can already be concrete proof that the Kyoto University offers one of the widest and diversified varieties of educational paths in the world.
Details about the Kyoto University in Japan
There are quite a few organizations that rank universities and in these rankings, they are ranked in 3 categories which are the universities in Japan, universities in Asia, and universities in the world. The organizations like the Academic Ranking of World Universities, Times Higher Education, and QS World University Ranking have been placing Kyoto University as the 2nd best Japanese university for years now. Kyodai’s ranking in comparison to universities in the whole of Asia has also been constantly in the top 20’s with the 2nd place being the highest ranking it has gotten throughout the past decade. For the world rankings, the Kyoto University has also been consistently ranked as one of the top 100 universities in the world and this is a huge feat considering the number of universities that are in competition for such a ranking globally.
These rankings prove that the Kyoto University is truly one of the top-tier universities a student can attend in the world. With this being the case though, some might feel like getting accepted here is a long shot. Luckily, getting accepted here isn’t hard at all. You don’t have to be extraordinarily gifted and smart to get in. You have to meet the requirements and more importantly, you have to be hard working and driven. This university, after all, is one of the most research-oriented universities in the world and these research studies require a lot of hard work and determination to finish.
If you wish to learn more about the courses and programs offered here as well as the tuition fees for each course and program, you will be happy to see that their website is very informative about these topics. The website gives you a thorough breakdown of the fees you need to pay per course as well as general information about the course like if the semester starts in April, May, or June. You should also know that doing a research study in this university gives you a big chance of getting the financial support you need because the Japanese government is very engaged with the studies and research of this university.
The quality in learning and the support you can get have produced graduates that have earned lifetime awards like Nobel Prizes and Field Medals. To mention some of these awardees, there are the likes of Isamu Akasaki, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in the year of 2014, Shinya Yamanaka, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in the year of 2012, and Ryoji Noyori, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in the year of 2001.
The Other Kyoto Universities That Focus on Art and Design as well as Foreign Studies
In an attempt to be even more efficient with their services, the Kyoto University made expansions that paved the way for the creation of the Kyoto University of Art and Design and the Kyoto University of Foreign Studies. These two universities may be teaching different things but they have the same purpose which is to help students focus more on their learning by being in an establishment that focuses purely on specific subjects.
The art and design university is for the aspiring graphic artists and designers that wish to master their craft by learning all these is to learn about it. The foreign studies university, on the other hand, aims to do the same with the addition of giving their international students a better environment to learn. Being on the main campus may be overwhelming for international students because of the language barrier and other factors. With the establishment of the Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, these detrimental factors should be lessened, if not completely canceled, and that should ultimately improve their learnings.
Again, if you wish to obtain more details about these particular universities and the several courses and programs they offer, these universities also have their respective websites where these general and detailed information are given out. Take the time to browse these websites to know what all your options are exactly so you can make a fully informed decision about things like what courses you would probably want to take.
Considering all the things mentioned earlier, there is no doubt that the Kyoto University is an educational establishment to be proud of. Japan truly did a great job of making and nurturing this university into what it is today, which is a university that can compete on a global scale. It continues to progress in the right direction as more courses are being added to its curriculum every year or so. You might not find a course you want to take there now but maybe in the coming years, a new course opens up and it is exactly what you were looking for.