TOKYO Kyodo has said it wants to double its number of female professors and associate professors to around 400 by fiscal 2027, as it pushes for more diversity on campus.
In fall 2021, Japan's leading university announced an action plan in which it seeks to increase its ratio of female faculty members, including lecturers and assistant professors, from 16 percent to 25 percent or more.
The university will still lag behind global standards if it meets its target for female faculty members.
The average ratio of female faculty members in higher education institutions in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries was 45 percent.
The target is short of the 30 percent figure for female faculty staff at Japanese universities as a whole.
As of May this year, 274 of the 2,322 professors and associate professors at the university were female.
By fiscal 2027, the university plans to hire 141 new female professors and 165 associate professors, which will be a total of around 400 women, taking into account those who will retire into account.
The university will hire more female lecturers and assistant professors, aiming to make up about 1,200 of its roughly 4,800 faculty members.
The action plan states that the university aims to create new value through interaction and dialogue between people of different origins. The university also set a target for women to make up 30 percent or more of the student body.
The university said in a statement that it wanted to create a lively campus by hiring women on a large scale for the first time since the university was founded.