At the first preparatory committee meeting for the new university in fiscal year 2026, Gifu City finalized its plan to merge Gifu Pharmaceutical University and Gifu City Women's Junior College to establish a new university, tentatively named "Gifu City University," in April 2029. The new university is planned to have two faculties: a Faculty of Pharmacy and a new science faculty. At the second preparatory committee meeting held in August 2026, a plan was presented to establish the new science faculty as "Faculty of Creative Science and Engineering, Department of Creative Science and Engineering (tentative name)." The city plans to conduct a public comment period to gather opinions from residents and is expected to revise the basic plan during fiscal year 2026.
The proposed Faculty of Creative Science and Engineering will have two courses: a "Data Science" course focusing on AI, information science, and data science, and an "Architecture and Design" course focusing on architecture and design. The enrollment capacity is expected to be around 100 to 120 students. As Gifu University is a national university, it does not have a Faculty of Science, nor does its Faculty of Engineering have an architecture department. This move is also seen as an attempt to retain students in these fields who would otherwise be going to Aichi Prefecture.
The new university will open in 2029, initially utilizing the Gifu Pharmaceutical University's Mikkaido Campus. It is then planned to relocate in line with the progress of the new campus development in the Koran district. The new campus in the Koran district is located approximately 1 kilometer (about a 15-minute walk) from JR Gifu Station. After the current facility's fixed-term lease agreement expires in February 2031, the campus will be developed as the new university's campus. Meanwhile, the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences is scheduled to relocate to a new building constructed on the main campus adjacent to the Gifu University campus in 2029.
With the establishment of the Faculty of Creative Science and Engineering, renovations to laboratories and other facilities will be necessary, but the city has indicated to the New University Preparatory Committee that it will limit the scope of these improvements to the bare minimum.
