Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > JAPANESE GOVERMENT POLICIES IN EDUCATION, SCIENCE, SPORTS AND CULTURE 1995 > Remaking Universities Chapter 3 Section 1 3

In addition to public support of higher education in the form of expenditures by the national and local governments, some costs are borne by students through payment of tuition and other fees.

Students' annual expenses vary considerably according to the establishment formats of their institutions of higher education. For universities and junior colleges, costs range between 1 million yen and 2 million yen a year ( Figure 3.2). At private universities and junior colleges the annual costs are approximately 500,000 yen higher than at national and local public institutions. This gap is approximately equivalent to the difference in tuition and other student fees between private and public institutions.

The main sources of income to cover the expenses of university and junior college students are funds from families, scholarship loans, and income from part-time jobs. In both cases funds from families are the greatest source of income. These funds cover most of the difference between student fees at private institutions and at national and local public institutions ( Figure 3.3). Over 80% of students at universities and junior colleges engage in part-time jobs, with 60% n70% of students undertaking such work on a regular basis ( Table 3.1).

Over 50% of students say that they need scholarship loans, but the actual percentages of students receiving scholarship loans from the Japan Scholarship Foundation and other sources are 22.4% at the university level and 10.2% at the junior college level.

Graduate students face higher costs than undergraduate and junior college students and are usually more independent of their parents. They tend to rely heavily on income from scholarship loans and part-time jobs, and the percentage of students with regular part-time jobs is higher than among undergraduate and junior college students. The percentages of graduate students receiving scholarship loans are 45.3% for those in master's degree courses and 62.9% for those in doctorate courses. About 50%n60% of those not receiving scholarship loans would prefer to have them. The results of the MESSC "Fiscal 1994 Survey on Student Life" indicate strong demand for the improvement and expansion of scholarship loan systems, and further efforts are needed to enhance financial support for graduate students, including the expansion of scholarship loan systems ( Table 3.2).