Osaka University

Osaka University
大阪大学
Motto	地域に生き世界に伸びる (Live Locally, Grow Globally)
Established	Founded in 1724 (Kaitokudo), Chartered on November 22, 1919 as Osaka Prefectural Medical College. Re-established on May 1, 1931 as Osaka Imperial University.
Type	Public (National)
Endowment	US$2.3 billion[citation needed] (JP¥264.3 billion)[citation needed]
Academic staff	2,953 (academic)[2]
Admin. staff	8,675 (total)[2]
Students	25,248[2]
Undergraduates	15,937
Postgraduates	7,856
Other students	1,455 (international students)
Location	Suita, Osaka, Japan
Campus	Suburban / Urban, 1.59 km²
Authorized Student Groups	58 sports-related, 68 culture-related groups [3]
Mascot	Macchi the Crocodile (unofficial)
Affiliations	APRU, AEARU
Website	www.osaka-u.ac.jp

Osaka University (大阪大学, Ōsaka daigaku^?), or Handai (阪大, Handai^?), is a major national university located in Osaka, Japan. It is the sixth oldest university in Japan as the Osaka Prefectural Medical College, and formerly one of the Imperial Universities of Japan. Numerous prominent scientists worked at the Osaka University such as the Nobel Laureate in Physics Hideki Yukawa.

History

Osaka University portal

Academic traditions of the university reach back to Kaitokudō (懐徳堂^?), an Edo-period school for local citizens founded in 1724, and Tekijuku (適塾^?), a school of Rangaku for samurai founded by Ogata Kōan in 1838. The spirit of the university's humanity sciences is believed to be intimately rooted in Kaitokudo, whereas that of the natural and applied sciences, including medicine, is widely believed to be based on Tekijuku.^[4]

Osaka University traces its origin back to 1869 when Osaka Prefectural Medical School was founded in downtown Osaka. The school was later transformed into the Osaka Prefectural Medical College with university status by the University Ordinance (Imperial Ordinance No. 388 of 1918) in 1919. The college merged with the newly-founded College of Science to form Osaka Imperial University（大阪帝國大学） in 1931. Osaka Imperial University was inaugurated as the sixth imperial university in Japan. As part of the University, Osaka Technical College was later included to form the school of Engineering two years later. The university was eventually renamed Osaka University in 1947.

Merging with Naniwa High School and Osaka High School as a result of the government's education system reform in 1949, Osaka University started its postwar era with five faculties: Science, Medicine, Engineering, Letters, and Law. After that, faculties, graduate schools, and research institutes have been successively established. Among these are the School of Engineering Science, the first of its kind among Japanese national universities, which draws upon the excellence of both sciences and engineering disciplines, and the School of Human Sciences, which covers its cross-disciplinary research interest as broadly as psychology, sociology, and education. Built on the then-existing faculties, 10 graduate schools were set up as part of the government's education system reform program in 1953. Two graduate schools, the Graduate School of Language and Culture and the cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional Osaka School of International Public Policy, add to the list, making the number of graduate schools reach 12 in 1994.

Osaka University Hospital

In 1993, Osaka University Hospital was relocated from the Nakanoshima campus in downtown Osaka to the Suita campus, completing the implementation of the university's plan to integrate the scattered facilities into the Suita and Toyonaka campuses. In October 2007, a merger between Osaka University and Osaka University of Foreign Studies was completed. The merger made Osaka University one of two national universities in the country with a School of Foreign Studies (with Tokyo University of Foreign Studies). In addition, the merger made the university the largest national university in the country.

In 2009, Osaka University implemented a major revision of its website. The result is a site much more accessible and informative to persons not versed in the Japanese language — a site much more user-friendly to international exchange students, international researchers, and expatriates living in the Osaka area. Currently, thanks to the work of the "Web Design Unit," virtually all Osaka University's web pages come in pairs — a Japanese page and the same page in English. These pairings include frequent updates on symposiums, seminars, and other events open to staff, students and, often, the general public.

Campuses

Toyonaka campus main entrance

Suita, Toyonaka and Minoh are the university's three campuses. Home to the university's headquarters, the Suita campus extends across Suita city and Ibaraki city in Osaka prefecture. The Suita campus houses faculties of Human Sciences, Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Engineering. It contains the Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences and a portion of the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology. The campus is also home to the Osaka University Hospital and the Nationwide Joint Institute of Cybermedia Center and Research Center for Nuclear Physics. Because access to the campus by public transportation is relatively inconvenient, automobiles, motorcycles, and bicycles are commonly seen within the campus. While sports activities are primarily concentrated on the Toyonaka campus, tennis activities are concentrated on the Suita campus because of its many tennis facilities.

The Toyonaka campus is home to faculties of Letters, Law, Economics, Science, and Engineering Science. It is also the academic base for Graduate Schools of International Public Policy, Language and Culture, (a portion of) Information Science, and the Center for the Practice of Legal and Political Expertise. All freshmen attend classes on the Toyonaka campus during their first year of enrollment.

The Minoh campus was incorporated following the merger with Osaka University of Foreign Studies in October 2007. The Minoh campus is home to School of Foreign Studies, Research Institute for World Languages, and Center for Japanese Language and Culture.

In addition to these three campus, the former Nakanoshima campus, the university's earliest campus located in downtown Osaka, served as the hub for the faculty of medicine until the transfer to the Suita campus was completed in 1993.^[5] Starting from April 2004, the Nakanoshima campus has been transformed into the "Nakanoshima Center", serving as a venue for information exchange, adult education classes, and activities involving academic as well as non-academic communities.

Organization

Osaka University has 11 faculties (学部) for undergraduate programs and 15 graduate schools (大学院).^[6]

Academic alliances

Osaka University has completed academic exchange agreements with a large number of universities (in 2010, 78) throughout the world and also exchange agreements between schools at Osaka University and schools and institutes in other countries (in 2010, 323). These agreements facilitate international students studying at Osaka University and Osaka University students studying at overseas universities, schools, and institutes. In many cases, students are able to participate in these exchange agreements without paying any additional tuition.^[7] Below are examples of some of these universities:

Academic Rankings

University rankings (overall)

Toyo Keizai National[8]	General	4
Kawaijuku National[9]	General	3
T. Reuters National[10]	Research	3
WE National[11]	Employment	7
NBP Kansai[12]	Reputation	2
Shimano National[13]	Selectivity	SA
QS Asia[14]	General	8
ARWU Asia/Pacific[15]	Research	6
THE World[16]	General	130
QS World[17]	General	45
ARWU World[18]	Research	75
ENSMP World[19]	Alumni	92

University rankings (by subject)

Social Sciences & Humanities
LAW
BE Success National[20]	Qualification	7
BE Pass rate National[21]	Qualification	8
ECONOMICS
RePec National[22]	Research	2
Natural Sciences & Technology
Engineering
Nikkei National[23]	Research	1
MATERIALS SCIENCE
T.Reuters National[24]	Research	2
T.Reuters World[24]	Research	12
PHYSICS
T.Reuters National[24]	Research	3
T.Reuters World[24]	Research	22
CHEMISTRY
T.Reuters National[24]	Research	3
T.Reuters World[24]	Research	12
BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY
T.Reuters National[24]	Research	3
T.Reuters World[24]	Research	28
ARCHITECTURE
ARE Success National[25]	Qualification	21
Life Sciences
IMMUNOLOGY
T.Reuters National[24]	Research	1
T.Reuters World[24]	Research	4
PHARMACOLOGY & TOXICOLOGY
T.Reuters National[24]	Research	9
T.Reuters World[24]	Research	154
* T. Reuters World rankings include non-educational institutions

Handai is one of the most prestigious universities in Japan. It can be seen in the several rankings such as shown below.

General Rankings

The university has been ranked 3rd in 2009 and 4th in 2008 and 2010 in the ranking "Truly Strong Universities" by Toyo Keizai.^[8] In another ranking, Japanese prep school Kawaijuku ranked Handai as the 3rd best university in Japan.^[9]

It is recognized as a leading university, especially in the basic sciences, technology and medical field. The university was ranked the 43rd among the world's best universities and the 3rd best Japanese university in 2009, according to the THE-QS World University Rankings.^[26] In 2011, it came 45th in the QS World University Rankings^[27], four places higher than the previous year (in 2010 Times Higher Education World University Rankings and QS World University Rankings parted ways to produce separate rankings).

Research Performance

Handai is one of the top research institutions in Japan. According to Thomson Reuters, Handai is the 3rd best research university in Japan.^[10] Its research excellence is especially distinctive in Biology & Biochemistry (1st in Japan, 4th in the world), Materials Science (2nd in Japan, 12th in the world), Physics (3rd in Japan, 22nd in the world), Chemistry (3rd in Japan, 12th in the world), Immunology (3rd in Japan, 28th in the world), and Pharmacology & Toxicology (9th in Japan, 154th in the world).^[28]

Weekly Diamond also reported that Handai has the 7th highest research standard in Japan in terms of research funding per researchers in COE Program.^[29] In the same article, it's also ranked 16th in terms of the quality of education by GP funds per student.

Handai also has a high research standard in Economics. Repec in Jan 2011 ranked Handai's Economic department as Japan's 2nd best economic research university.^[30] Handai has provided 5 presidents of Japanese Economic Association in its 42 year history, and this number is 4th largest.^[31]

In addition, Nikkei Shimbun　on 2004/2/16 surveyed about the research standards in Engineering studies based on Thomson Reuters, Grants in Aid for Scientific Research and questionnaires to heads of 93 leading Japanese Research Centers, and Handai was placed top (research planning ability 2nd/informative ability of research outcome 5th/ability of business-academia collaboration 9th) in this ranking.^[32]

Furthermore, Handai got the 4th place at the number of patents accepted (171) during 2009 among Japanese Universities.^[33]

Graduate school Rankings

Handai Law School is considered as one of top Law schools in Japan, as it was ranked 7th in terms of the number of successful candidates of Japanese Bar Examination in 2010.^[34]

Alumni Rankings

According to the Weekly Economist's 2010 rankings, graduates from Handai have the 7th best employment rate in 400 major companies in Japan.^[35]

École des Mines de Paris ranks Handai as 92nd in the world in 2011 in terms of the number of alumni listed among CEOs in the 500 largest worldwide companies.^[19]

Popularity and Selectivity

Handai is one of the most selective universities in Japan. Its entrance difficulty is usually considered as one of the top in Japan.^[36][37]

Nikkei BP has been publishing a ranking system "Brand rankings of Japanese universities" every year, composed by the various indications related to the power of brand, and Handai was 2nd in 2010 in Kansai Area.^[38][12]

List of notable persons

• Osamu Hayaishi – The Wolf Prize laureate in Medicine in 1986
• Osamu Tezuka – Manga author (School of Medicine)
• Heizo Takenaka – Economist (Graduate School of Economics)
• Akio Morita – Sony founder (School of Science)
• Hideki Yukawa – Nobel Prize in Physics (Graduate School of Science)
• Hantaro Nagaoka – Physicist (First President of Osaka University)
• Shiba Ryotaro – Japanese author (School of Foreign Studies)
• Michio Morishima – Japanese economist, co-founder of International Economic Review
• Fathimath Dhiyana Saeed – SAARC Secretary-General
• Toru Kumon - developer of Kumon method
• Akira Yoshino - inventor of lithium-ion battery
• Seishi Yokomizo - Japanese novelist, creator of private detective Kosuke Kindaichi.
• Toshio Masuda- Japanese film director
• Hiroshi Haruki - Japanese mathematician, author of Haruki's theorem and Haruki's Lemma

Media

• Handai Walker(in Japanese) - student newspaper.

See also

• Kansai Science City

References

1. ^ Facts & Figures of the University — Osaka University. Osaka-u.ac.jp (2010-05-01). Retrieved on 2011-06-26.
2. ^ ^{a b c} "Osaka University: Outline of the University". http://www.osaka-u.ac.jp/en/guide/about/outline.html. Retrieved 2010-01-14. 
3. ^ Introduction to Official Student Groups — Osaka University. Osaka-u.ac.jp (2010-10-13). Retrieved on 2011-06-26.
4. ^ "History of the University". Osaka University. http://www.osaka-u.ac.jp/en/guide/about/history.html. Retrieved 2008-02-08. 
5. ^ History of Osaka University — Osaka University. Osaka-u.ac.jp. Retrieved on 2011-06-26.
6. ^ Undergraduate and Graduate schools & facilities — Osaka University. Osaka-u.ac.jp. Retrieved on 2011-06-26.
7. ^ University Exchange Agreements — Osaka University. Osaka-u.ac.jp (2010-11-01). Retrieved on 2011-06-26.
8. ^ ^{a b} "Truly Strong Universities" (in Japanese). Toyo Keizai. 2010. http://www.toyokeizai.net/business/industrial/detail/AC/7ca97f085eda34ce139f6d1210cef898/page/1/. Retrieved Apr 29, 2011. 
9. ^ ^{a b} "Kawai 30 Top Japanese Universities". Kawaijuku. 2001. http://www.nigelward.com/top30.html. Retrieved Apr 29, 2011. 
10. ^ ^{a b} "Thomson Reuters 20 Top research institutions in Japan". Thomson Reuters. 2011. http://science.thomsonreuters.com/press/2010/top-20-japanese-research-insts/. Retrieved Apr 29, 2011.  (this raking includes 5 non-educational institutions)
11. ^ "Employment rate in 400 major companies rankings" (in Japanese). Weekly Economist. 2011. http://www2.ttcn.ne.jp/honkawa/3865.html. Retrieved Apr 29, 2011. 
12. ^ ^{a b} "Nikkei BP Brand rankings of Japanese universities" (in Japanese). Nikkei Business Publications. 2010. http://trendy.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/pickup/20101108/1033562/. Retrieved Apr 29, 2011. 
13. ^ "GBUDU University Rankings" (in Japanese). YELL books. 2009. http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E5%8D%B1%E3%81%AA%E3%81%84%E5%A4%A7%E5%AD%A6%E3%83%BB%E6%B6%88%E3%81%88%E3%82%8B%E5%A4%A7%E5%AD%A6-%EF%BC%92%EF%BC%90%EF%BC%91%EF%BC%92%E5%B9%B4%E7%89%88-YELL-books-%E5%B3%B6%E9%87%8E-%E6%B8%85%E5%BF%97/dp/4753930181. Retrieved Apr 29, 2011. 
14. ^ "QS Asian University Rankings". QS Quacquarelli Symonds Limited. 2010. http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/asian-university-rankings/2010. Retrieved Apr 29, 2011. 
15. ^ "Academic Ranking of World Universities in Japan". Institute of Higher Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. 2010. http://www.arwu.org/Country2010Main.jsp?param=Japan. Retrieved Apr 29, 2011. 
16. ^ "THE World University Rankings". Times Higher Education. 2010. http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2010-2011/top-200.html. Retrieved Apr 29, 2011. 
17. ^ "QS World University Rankings". QS Quacquarelli Symonds Limited. 2010. http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2010/results. Retrieved Apr 29, 2011. 
18. ^ "Academic Ranking of World Universities". Institute of Higher Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. 2010. http://www.arwu.org/Country2010Main.jsp?param=Japan. Retrieved Apr 29, 2011. 
19. ^ ^{a b} "ENSMP World University Rankings". École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris. 2011. http://www.mines-paristech.fr/Actualites/PR/Ranking2011EN-Fortune2010.pdf. Retrieved Apr 29, 2011. 
20. ^ "Bar Exam Successful Applicants rankings" (in Japanese). Shikaku Seek. 2010. http://laws.shikakuseek.com/data/2010data-1.html. Retrieved May 11, 2011. 
21. ^ "Bar Exam Pass rate rankings" (in Japanese). Shikaku Seek. 2010. http://laws.shikakuseek.com/data/2010data-2.html. Retrieved May 11, 2011. 
22. ^ "Top 25% Institutions and Economists in Japan, as of January 2011". REPEC. 2011. http://ideas.repec.org/top/old/1101/top.japan.html. Retrieved May 11, 2011. 
23. ^ "Nikkei research standard rankings in Engineering" (in Japanese). Nikkei Shimbun. 2010. http://homepage3.nifty.com/katu-kobayashi/doppo/kougaku_kennkyu.htm. Retrieved May 11, 2011. 
24. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} "Thomson Reuters 10 Top research institutions by subject in Japan" (in Japanese). Thomson Reuters. 2010. http://science.thomsonreuters.jp/press/release/2011/esi2011/ranking/. Retrieved May 11, 2011. 
25. ^ "Architects Registration Exam Successful Applicants rankings" (in Japanese). Shikaku Seek. 2010. http://www2.ttcn.ne.jp/honkawa/3868.html. Retrieved May 11, 2011. 
26. ^ "Top 100 Universities". The Times Higher Education. http://www.topuniversities.com/world-university-rankings. Retrieved 2010-01-15. 
27. ^ {{cite web|url=http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2011
28. ^ "Thomson Reuters 20 Top research institutions in Japan" (in Japanese). Thomson Reuters. http://science.thomsonreuters.jp/press/release/2011/esi2011/ranking/.  (this raking includes non-educational institutions)
29. ^ "週刊ダイヤモンド" ダイヤモンド社 2010/2/27 http://web.sapmed.ac.jp/kikaku/infomation/0227daiyamondokiji.pdf
30. ^ Within Country and State Rankings at IDEAS: Japan. Ideas.repec.org. Retrieved on 2011-06-26.
31. ^ Japanese Economic Association – JEA Global Site. Jeaweb.org. Retrieved on 2011-06-26.
32. ^ 大学工学部研究力調査（04.2.22）. Homepage3.nifty.com. Retrieved on 2011-06-26.
33. ^ (Japanese)2009年国内大学別特許公開件数, Japanese patent office, accessed May 3rd 2011
34. ^ 2010年(平成22年)新司法試験法科大学院別合格率ランキング -法科大学院seek. Laws.shikakuseek.com. Retrieved on 2011-06-26.
35. ^ "Employment rate in 400 major companies rankings" (in Japanese). Weekly Economist. 2011. http://www2.ttcn.ne.jp/honkawa/3865.html. Retrieved Apr 29, 2011. 
36. ^ e.g. Yoyogi seminar published Hensachi (the indication showing the entrance difficulties by prep schools) rankings http://www.yozemi.ac.jp/rank/gakubu/index.html
37. ^ Japanese journalist Kiyoshi Shimano ranks its entrance difficulty as SA (most selective/out of 11 scales) in Japan. "危ない大学・消える大学 2012年版" (in Japanese). YELL books. 2011. http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4753930181. 
38. ^ NBPC ニュースリリース「大学ブランド・イメージ調査 2010(首都圏編)」（2009年10月実施）より. Consult.nikkeibp.co.jp. Retrieved on 2011-06-26.

External links

• Osaka University
• Osaka University in the Ranking Web of Asian Universities

Coordinates: 34°49′09″N 135°31′36″E / 34.81917°N 135.52667°E / 34.81917; 135.52667