The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has put together an ambitious ``Plan for the Advancement of Doctoral Human Resources'' that aims to triple the number of doctoral degree holders per million people by 100 compared to 2040, making it one of the top in the world. Among the major countries, Japan is the only one that aims to overcome the declining trend in the number of doctoral degree holders and is calling for cooperation from industry.
文科省によると、博士人材活躍プランでは人口100万人当たりの博士号取得者数を2040年で2020年度比で3倍の300人以上に増やすとともに、学士号取得者に対する博士号取得者の割合を3倍の8％、博士後期課程で学ぶ学生の就職率を2023年度より10ポイント高い80％に引き上げるとした。
The number of doctoral degree recipients in Japan will be 2021 per million population in 100. This is behind the UK with 123, Germany with 340, South Korea with 338, the US with 317 and France with 285.
Among other major countries, France is almost flat, but other countries have continued their long-term increasing trend, while Japan's declining trend has not stopped. The number of students advancing from master's programs to doctoral programs in graduate schools will decrease by 2023% in 2003 from XNUMX. Some are pointing out that this is one of the factors that is causing Japan's scientific and technological capabilities to decline.
The biggest reason is that career paths after obtaining a doctoral degree are not sufficiently developed.When the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's National Institute for Science and Technology Policy conducted a survey of those planning to complete (graduate) a master's program in 2021, it was found that Approximately 3% of students studying in this program answered, ``I'm worried about getting a job after completing the doctoral program'' and ``I'll have poor economic prospects if I continue on to the doctoral program.''
In order to alleviate the concerns of students studying in doctoral courses, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology is calling on industry to recruit doctoral candidates, while also encouraging outstanding students to receive support equivalent to their living expenses and tuition fee exemptions.
