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Since 2004, when national universities – which are more highly ranked than Japan’s private universities – were incorporated to make them more autonomous, public funding has been cut by about 1 per cent a year, said Futao Huang, a professor at the Research Institute for Higher Education at Hiroshima University.
Needing new sources of funds and able to raise tuition fees by only a limited amount, income from their hospitals has proved the “best and quickest way” to boost income, he said.
“For example, they have asked patients to do more medical examinations or to come to receive medical treatment more frequently than before to generate more income,” Professor Huang said.
Hospital income now accounts for almost as much as public allocations, according to these figures – taken from a new analysis paper by Professor Huang, “Changes and challenges to higher education financing in Japan”.