The government aims to improve the working conditions of young researchers in the nation by, for example, providing financial aid for their living expenses and paying salaries commensurate with their potentiality, according to a draft outline of its university reform plans.
The reforms are intended to elevate Japanese universities into world-class centers for research.
Pillars of the planned reforms include assistance measures depending on young researchers' study capabilities, and diversifying financial resources for funding their research activities.
The government plans to target financial aid toward universities that will advance the reforms, using investment profits from a university aid fund. The eventual size of the fund will be about 10 trillion yen.
Universities will be pressed to take more flexible measures to attract talented students and talented young researchers. For example, the schools will be required to provide the aid for living expenses and pay researchers salaries in accordance with their study capabilities.
The draft also urges universities to conduct more joint research projects with companies, or solicit donations to secure their own revenue sources.
The draft also emphasizes that universities should set up collegiate entities for making decisions on compilations of business strategies, selections and dismissals of university heads, and other important issues about management of universities. The draft says that the entities will need to include experts from outside of the respective universities.
The university aid fund will become functional in this fiscal year with an initial amount at about 4.5 trillion yen. Until then, the government will consider a specific method for selecting which universities will receive distribution of the investment profits and the amount of money to be distributed.
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