On 30 June 2017, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in Japan named three national universities, Tohoku University, the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University, as “Designated National Universities”. The designation period is until 2021 and these universities are expected to rank among world’s top universities and lead reforms of Japanese national universities by setting ambitious goals and taking advantage of exclusive support from the government.
 

The impact of designation
The government plans a 1 billion JPY (6.8 million pound) budget for the first year (FY2017) of this project to support these universities’ reforms. The designated universities will benefit from deregulations enabling them to develop business by establishing a subsidiary company and attracting leading researchers by offering a competitive benefits package.

These universities were required to set ambitious and strategic objectives, which include internationalisation targets for their students and researchers. For example, the University of Tokyo plans to invest 400 million yen (2.7 million pounds) annually for enhancing students' global skills. Kyoto University also aims to internationalise their education further. The details of each university’s strategy will be revealed in due course. 
 

Selection of potential world elites
This project targets national universities and received applications from 7 national universities which met strict application requirements on “research ability” ”collaboration with society” and “international collaboration”. The 4 universities that were not selected this time - Tokyo Institute of Technology, Hitotsubashi University, Nagoya University and Osaka University - have been named as “designation candidates” and they may be able to receive designation by the end of March 2018 subject to amended strategies.
 

Analysis by Rui Ogura, British Council Japan
The designation offers some flexibility to the selected universities in terms of investment and attracting top researchers, however some universities are sceptical about the real impact of the project and they consider it is more for enhancing the brand of top-tier universities.

At the same time, as grants for national universities have decreased year on year, the selected universities are required to set the best examples of maximising use of their own resources.

The new designated status is expected to have a positive influence on outward student mobility as each of the selected institutions have positioned internationalisation of education as one of their top priorities.