The government's Council for Creating the Future of Education has released a schedule for implementing the recommendations compiled in May.In order to raise the number of students majoring in science fields to about 5%, the government will relax regulations on the establishment of undergraduate schools from FY5, and expand grant-type scholarships and tuition reductions to middle-income earners from FY2023.
According to the Cabinet Secretariat, as a measure to encourage university reorganization into growth fields such as digitalization and decarbonization, in order to relax regulations on the number of full-time faculty members, the area of school land and school buildings, and standard installation expenses, which are the requirements for establishing departments, The Ministry of Science and Technology will revise the university establishment standards by the end of 2022, and apply the new standards from the 2023 application review to be conducted in 2024.
The provision of benefit-type scholarships and reduction of tuition fees are targeted at low-income students with an annual income of less than 380 million yen, but middle-class families with many children and science, engineering, and agriculture students. It will be implemented from 2024 after considering the revision of the law to expand the scope.
With regard to scholarships that repay tuition fees after a student has reached a certain annual income after finding employment, the government plans to proceed from fiscal 2024 after considering legal revisions and implementing necessary system reforms.
The establishment of a joint public-private study support program for female students who will go on to science, engineering or agriculture fields will start in 2024 after considering and working out the support system.
The Council for Creating the Future of Education will be launched at the end of 2021 with the support of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who serves as chairman, and has proposed measures to raise the number of students majoring in science fields from the current 2022% to around 5% by May 35. .
