"JSPS External Review Report" was issued.(PDF File 1.22MB)

Chapter IV. Fostering Researchers(1) Fostering researchers in universitiesHigher education systems (overview of university systems from theperspective of fostering researchers)Graduate schools play the role of promoting scientific research, andparticularly basic research, as well as fostering researchers and otherhuman resources with high-level specialist abilities. Ministry of Education,Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has been working toexpand and improve graduate schools, and responding to the November1991 report by the University Council entitled “Quantitative Improvementof Graduate Schools”, which noted that the scale of graduate schools had tobe at least doubled overall by 2000, has instituted various measures such asestablishing new graduate schools and boosting graduate school enrolments.As a result, 479 universities established graduate schools in FY2000,around 70 percent of all of Japan’s 651 national, public and privateuniversities. Moreover, there were 205,000 students enrolled in graduateschools (143,000 master course students and 62,000 doctoral coursestudents), more than twice the 99,000 enrolled in FY1991 (69,000 mastercourse students and 30,000 doctoral course students). However, the ratio ofgraduate to und ergraduate students is only 8.3 percent, well undercountries such as the United Kingdom (33.6 percent), the United States(16.6%) and France (18.3 percent).Graduate schools generally comprise Masters and doctoral courses. Masterscourses are intended to further develop the expertise fostered atundergraduate level in line with their status as the first stage in thefostering of researchers and directions in terms of fostering high-levelprofessionals. Doctoral courses are the key institutions in promoting basicand advanced scientific research, fostering outstanding researchers andserving as bases for world scientific research.Various measures for fostering researchers and securing young researchershave been adopted particularly for doctoral courses. The JSPS uses itsFellowship Programs to set up in particular those outstanding young155