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There are two types of post-graduate courses, the two-year master's course, and the five-year doctor's, course. The doctor's course is generally divided into a two-year term followed by a three-year term, the former being regarded as equivalent to the master's course. Hereinafter, the "master's course" is to be taken to refer to the master's course and the first term of the doctor's course (including the first-year and second-year courses of the integrated doctor's course except in the medical and dental fields), and the "doctor's course," to the three-year term of doctor's course (including the third-year, fourth-year and fifth-year courses of the integrated doctor's course, except in the medical and dental fields) and the doctor's course for the medical and dental fields. The system of the five-year integrated doctor's course, it should be noted, was instituted in 1975 school year under the terms of the " Standard for Establishment of Graduate Schools" enacted in June, 1974 for consolidation of the graduate school system.

As shown in Chart 1-22, entrants into graduate schools in 1975 included 16,000 admitted to the master's course and 4,000 admitted to the doctor's course, who were 4.6 times and 1.9 times the figures in their respective categories in 1960. The growth in the number of students admitted to the master's course has been remarkable particularly since 1965. In the meantime, the rate of university student advancement to these two postgraduate courses has been in a downward trend since the peak year of 1965 due to the rapid increase of undergraduates in subsequent years.

Chart 1-22. Number of Entrants into Graduate Schools and Rate of Student Advancement Thereto