Tokyo University to Exempt Poor Students From Tuitition
Japan’s #1 university has announced it will be giving a helping hand to students from poor backgrounds:
The University of Tokyo will unconditionally exempt undergraduate students from tuition fees starting next school year, if their family’s annual income is less than 4 million yen, officials said.
The exemption with its clear-cut wage income criteria, the first by a national university, is aimed at encouraging less privileged students to apply, thereby ensuring equality of education, university officials said.
“Students of Todai (the university) are often said to come from affluent families, but it is not necessarily the case,” said Kimihiko Hirao, executive vice president. “We would like to send a message to those in financially underprivileged families: ‘Apply, don’t give up.’”
But some regard the strategy as an undisguised bid by Todai, generally regarded as the nation’s most prestigious university, to lure more outstanding students.
It sounds like a nice move. Unfortunately, some intelligent students will never even have a chance of passing Tokyo University’s entrance examinations because their families cannot afford to spend money on private test prep cram schools
