26 universities to abolish humanities, social sciences

Nearly half of 60 Japanese national universities that have humanities and social science faculties plan to abolish those departments in the 2016 academic year or later, reports The Japan News-Asia News Network.

According to a survey conducted by The Yomiuri Shimbun among presidents of the 86 national universities across the country, 26 intended to eliminate these departments. The universities will stop recruiting students for a combined total of at least 1,300 places, mainly in their teacher training faculties. Some of these slots will be allocated to newly established faculties.

The survey highlighted the wave of reform sweeping over humanities and social science faculties. The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry issued a notice to national universities this June calling for their humanities and social science faculties to be abolished or converted to other fields. The faculties it sought to have eliminated or converted included law and economics departments and teacher training faculties, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Full report on the Asia One site