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Japan Graduate Education and Research
Graduate schools became a part of the formal higher
education
system only after World War II and are still not stressed
in the
1990s. Even though 60 percent of all universities have
graduate
schools, only 7 percent of university graduates advance to
master's
programs, and total graduate school enrollment is about 4
percent
of the entire university student population.
The pattern of graduate enrollment is almost the
opposite of
that of undergraduates: the majority (63 percent) of all
graduate
students are enrolled in the national universities, and it
appears
that the disparity between public and private graduate
enrollments
is widening. Graduate education is largely a male
preserve, and
women, particularly at the master's level, are most
heavily
represented in the humanities, social sciences, and
education. Men
are frequently found in engineering programs where, at the
master's
level, women comprise only 2 percent of the students. At
the
doctoral level, the two highest levels of female
enrollment are
found in medical programs and the humanities, where in
both fields
30 percent of doctoral students are women. Women account
for about
13 percent of all doctoral enrollments.
The generally small numbers of graduate students and
the
graduate enrollment profile results from a number of
factors,
especially the traditional employment pattern of industry.
The
private sector frequently prefer to hire and train new
university
graduates, allowing them to develop their research skills
within
the corporate structure. Thus, the demand for students
with
advanced degrees is low.
Data as of January 1994
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