Between 15-40% of Japanese universities will go bankrupt or merge within the next ten years, according to a British scholar.

Roger Goodman, Japan expert at Oxford University and co-author of “Can the Japanese Change Their Education System?” claims Japanese universities will be facing an implosion “of a type not preveiously ever seen before,” in a book to be published in March, according to a Kyodo News report.

Japanese universities grew in number in the 1990’s, making it easier for students to get accepted, but many universities are now struggling to fill their quotas. This has forced less attractive universities to lower their entry requirements, according to Goodman.

“While Japan’s leading national universities will continue to be protected by state support and the leading private universities by their reputation and alumni networks, rural public and local universities and lower-level private universities face a bleak future, if indeed they have a future at all,” Goodman was quoted as saying by Kyodo News.

Goodman believes that the crisis will lead to a growing “polarization” in higher education, with demand for places at Japan’s lower-level universities declining dramatically.

The solution for struggling universities, Goodman argues, is to look to alternative sources of income by undertaking more research projects and attracting more foreign students, for example by conducing more lectures in English and employing more foreign staff.

Goodman’s work will be published in March in “The Demographic Challenge: A Handbook about Japan.“

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