University of Tokyo Wants to Be Better Than Harvard

When Newsweek ranked the world’s top 100 universities last year, the University of Tokyo came in at 16th place, achieving the highest rank of all its Asian counterparts. Along with Harvard University, the university is also included in the school list of a Chinese government program, which sends 5,000 students annually to prestigious universities worldwide with government support.

Indeed, the world acknowledges the University of Tokyo as Asia’s number one academic institution. Yet, the university is not satisfied. On its 130th anniversary last Thursday, the school announced that it would embark on a major drive to become not only Asia’s but also the world’s best university, a position long dominated by American universities.

Long gone are the days when critics used to say the University of Tokyo is undermining Japan’s national competitiveness. Some tangible results of the university’s reforms have silenced the critics. Changes came with the incorporation as a national university corporation in 2004. When the current president Hiroshi Komiyama came into office in 2005, the reform efforts were accelerated by benchmarking management skills from the private sector and granting more authority to the president to lead the reforms. Each academic department and research institute also adopted self-supporting systems.

The university’s new plans fall largely under its commitment to globalize the university. Part of the plan is to increase the number of foreign faculty members, including professors, lecturers and assistants from 250 to 1,300. In addition, the number of research centers located overseas will jump from 22 to 130. The projects will be financed by issuing bonds. Fortunately, the university can secure a low interest rate for its bonds due to its stellar credit ratings last year – triple A, which is higher than that of top Japanese companies like Sony or Canon. The bonds will finance the school’s ambition to become the world’s best university by ensuring generous paychecks and providing the best research environment for foreign professors, thereby attracting more foreign talent.

What the Asia’s best university has achieved in the past two years since its incorporation is simply amazing. Could it be the magic of incorporation that has increased universities’ independence to innovate as they like, or is this just one of the many telling stories reaffirming Japan’s latest revival?

Komiyama’s reforms focus on creating a distinctively Asian university rather than replicating an Ivy League school. In the fierce competition of the global education market, it seems like Korea is the only player not doing its best.