（5）Graduate Schools

Under the new educational system, graduate schools were to be established as independent institutions. Regulations governing graduate school programs were initially set by the Japanese University Accreditation Association as Standards for Graduate Schools in April, 1949, and later, in April, 1953, the Academic Degree Regulations were issued by the Ministry of Education. The first four graduate schools were set up in March, 1950, at private universities, and by April, 1953, graduate schools had also been established at national and local public universities. Both the master's and doctor's courses of the graduate schools were originally conceived as training programs for students and teaching staff who would remain in the academic profession. The master's program generally consists of a two-year course, and the doctor's program requires an additional three years. The exceptions are the medical and dental schools, which since 1959 have only a four-year doctor's training program. The few graduate schools originally recognized at national universities were oriented rather narrowly toward the promotion of basic research, but since 1955 the objective of master's level education has been broadened and the number of universities offering graduate study has been gradually expanded to accommodate the increased social demand. The development of graduate programs, however, was mainly concentrated at national universities. In contrast to undergraduate education, where private institutions were educating 76.8% of the total student population by 1971, the percentage of graduate students enrolled in private institutions in that same year was only 38.2%. By 1971, of the 389 universities in Japan, 188 had graduate schools (61 national, 19 local public, and 108 private universities) ; the number of students enrolled in graduate programs was 7.2 times the 1953 figure, or a total of 41,637 (See Table 7-6.). Thus the rate of increase of students enrolled in graduate programs exceeded even that of under graduate programs.