Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > JAPAMESE GOVERNMENT POLICIES IN EDUCATION,SCIENCE AND CULTURE 1990 > PART Chapter4 4 2

PART Issues and Perspectives ofHigher Education

The baccalaureat required for university admission certifies both the completion of a secondary school course and the qualification for entrance to universities. There are three kinds of baccalaureat: the general education baccalaureat; the technological baccalaureat; and the vocational baccalaureat. While students enter universities usually in accordance with the kind of baccalaureat they hold, it does not mean that the students' fields of study in universities are determined by the kind of baccalaureat they have earned, The proportion of students who successfully earn a baccalaureat is 68.4%, and the proportion of the relevant age group earning a baccalaureat is 31.9% (as of 1986).

It is a general principle that all students holding a baccalaureat are eligible for university admission without a selection process. However, some universities have begun to limit the number of entrants, because the number of applicants has exceeded the number of places available in many universities due to a recent rapid increase in baccalaureat holders. The limitation of the number of entrants has been provided, for example, by means of giving priorities to students who applied to each university earlier than others, or by means of giving preference to those students living in the locality where the university is situated. Some universities select students by giving students interviews with examiners, by examining applicants' academic performance at their lycees or their scores on the baccalaureat examination in particular subjects, and by giving students tests in French, foreign languages or general education.

Among some 300 grandes ecoles, a number of institutions which enjoy higher social prestige than universities select entrants on the basis of an entrance examination. Before taking this examination, all applicants to these grandes ecoles have to be given a one- to two-year preparatory education at a selective preparatory course for grandes ecoles, after earning a baccalaureat.