University of Tsukuba

1977: Third Cluster of Colleges established (Socio-Engineering, Information Sciences, Basic Engineering).

1978: Tokyo University of Education closed; doctoral program in socio-engineering and Junior College of Medical Technology established.

1980–1981: Doctoral programs in medicine (1980) and engineering (1981) established.

1983: College of International Relations established (Third Cluster).

1985: College of Japanese Language and Culture established (Second Cluster).

1 April 1989: Graduate School of Systems Management (GSSM), an evening MBA program for working adults, established at the Ōtsuka campus.

1990: Evening graduate program in corporate law added at Ōtsuka.

1991: College of Engineering Systems established.

1994: College of Agriculture and Forestry renamed College of Agro-Biological Resources.

1995: College of International Relations reorganized as the College of International Studies.

1996: Doctoral program in corporate sciences added at Ōtsuka.

1998: College of Basic Engineering reorganized; working-adult graduate programs at Ōtsuka reorganized into the independent Graduate School of Business Sciences.

1 October 2002: Merger with the University of Library and Information Science; Kasuga campus, College of Library and Information Science and Graduate School of Library, Information and Media Studies established. The Medical Specialist Cluster was reorganized into the College of Medicine and the College of Nursing and Medical Sciences, and the junior college ceased recruiting.

March–April 2004: University of Library and Information Science formally closed; National University Corporation University of Tsukuba inaugurated (1 April).

2005: Akihabara district of the Tokyo Campus established; professional graduate programs opened (law school and the MBA Program in International Business); the Ōtsuka campus renamed the Ōtsuka district of the Tokyo Campus; a discounted circulating campus bus service operated by Kanto Railway introduced.

March 2006: Junior College of Medical Technology abolished.

April 2007: Undergraduate organization reorganized from 7 clusters (including 4 specialist clusters) and 15 colleges into 9 schools (including 2 specialist schools) and 23 colleges.

10 December 2010: Statue of Kanō Jigorō (by Fumio Asakura) unveiled in front of the University Hall.

11 March 2011: Damaged in the Great East Japan Earthquake; damage totaled some 7 billion yen. On 30 September, the Bunkyo School Building of the Tokyo Campus opened following redevelopment of the former Ōtsuka district.

April 2017: Mountain Science Center established, integrating the Sugadaira Montane Research Center with the university forests.

October 2019: Data science made a required subject for all undergraduates entering from 2019.

1 April 2020: Graduate education moved to a degree-program system (3 academic gateways, 6 research groups); pre-existing graduate schools remain for continuing students. On 15 October, designated a designated national university corporation.

April 2021: First intake of the School of Comprehensive Studies, established the previous year.

April 2024: Partnership with the University of Washington in the field of artificial intelligence signed (9 April). In September, an overseas school (School of Transdisciplinary Science and Design) opened within the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — the first undergraduate school established abroad by a Japanese university to award Japanese degrees.

In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2019–2020, the university was placed 401st–450th in the world, 55th in Asia and 8th in Japan.

On 24 January 2019, the university announced a basic policy of not conducting research intended for military use; research funded by domestic or foreign military or defense organizations, or whose results could potentially be diverted to military use, is subject to prior internal review.

Research

Competitive funding programs

Four projects were adopted under the 21st Century Center of Excellence Program: in 2002, "Analysis of complex biological-system response mechanisms and their advanced agricultural application" (life sciences), "Promotion of interdisciplinary materials science for the creation of future functions" (chemistry and materials science) and "Promotion of health and sport sciences research" (interdisciplinary fields); and in 2003, "Promotion of kansei (affective) science elucidating the mind" (interdisciplinary fields). Under the successor Global Centers of Excellence Program, the project "Cybernics: fusion of human, machine and information systems" (information, electrical and electronic engineering) was adopted in 2007.

The Department of Computer Science was selected in September 2006 for MEXT's program for cultivating leading IT specialists, and in April 2006 the Graduate School of Systems and Information Engineering was designated a key cooperation base for the development of advanced ICT human resources by the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren). Ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the university was selected as a Type A contractor for MEXT's Sports Academy Formation Support Project, cooperating with the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Kanoya and Nippon Sport Science University to build networks with physical education and sport universities worldwide.

Internationally, the university co-proposed a human-resources development research project of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) with Khon Kaen University in Thailand, promoting research on mathematics, science and information education across the APEC region, and as the only affiliate member institution of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) in Japan it conducts joint education-reform projects with the SEAMEO secretariat and its 27 regional centers, including annual meetings, international collaborative practicums and online courses.

Its Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences is represented on the national Coordinating Committee for Earthquake Prediction.

Research centers

Nationwide joint-use facilities include the Center for Computational Sciences, the Plasma Research Center, the Shimoda Marine Research Center and the Gene Research Center. Campus-wide education and research centers include the Life Science Center for Survival Dynamics (Tsukuba Advanced Research Alliance, TARA), the Foreign Language Center, the Sport and Physical Education Center, the International Student Center, the Admission Center, the Alliance for Research on North Africa, the Academic Computing and Communications Center, the Research Facility Center for Science and Technology, the Center for Cybernics Research, the Center for Research in Radioisotope and Environmental Dynamics, and the University Health Center. Centers attached to individual faculties include the Research Center for University Studies; the Tsukuba Research Center for Interdisciplinary Materials Science; the Tsukuba-Plant Innovation Research Center (T-PIRC, formed in 2017 by merging the Agricultural and Forestry Research Center with the Gene Research Center's farm functions); the Mountain Science Center; the Center for Research on International Cooperation in Educational Development; the Laboratory Animal Resource Center; the Tsukuba Clinical Research and Development Organization (CREIL); the Research Center for Knowledge Communities; the Proton Medical Research Center; and the Special Needs Education Research Center. Other facilities include the International Institute for Integrative Sleep Medicine (WPI-IIIS), the national teacher-training facility for physical therapy education of the visually impaired, a venture business laboratory, the technology licensing organization Tsukuba Liaison Laboratory, the joint meteorological observation station at the summit of Mount Tsukuba (operated with Tsukubasan Shrine), and an overseas office in Bonn.

Campus and facilities

Tsukuba Campus

The Tsukuba Campus is the university's main campus. Because of its vast area, the university operates a campus transportation system unusual among Japanese universities: holders of an annual pass may ride the buses circulating through the campus without limit.

Tokyo Campus

The Bunkyo School Building of the Tokyo Campus, formerly known as the Ōtsuka campus (and later the Ōtsuka district), stands on part of the former Tokyo University of Education site; other parts of the site became the Bunkyō ward's Park of the Forest of Education, while the attached Elementary School remains adjacent. A new building jointly constructed with the Open University of Japan (one basement and six above-ground floors) opened in September 2011 and is positioned as a hub for lifelong learning; the Open University bore roughly a quarter of the construction cost and operates its Tokyo Bunkyo Study Center primarily on the second floor. The building is two minutes on foot from Myōgadani Station on the Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line. It houses the evening working-adult graduate programs, including the Graduate School of Business Sciences and law school, some programs of the Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences and other units, the Otsuka Library, and the Education Bureau of the Laboratory Schools, serving as the university's satellite campus in Tokyo. An Akihabara district (on the 14th–15th floors of the Akihabara Daibiru building), opened in 2005 to coincide with the opening of the Tsukuba Express line, was closed following completion of the Bunkyo School Building.

Student housing

The university operates five student housing complexes, all on the Tsukuba campus, with a total capacity of about 4,000: Ichinoya, Hirasuna, Oikoshi, the Global Village and Kasuga (the former University of Library and Information Science dormitory). Because little private student housing was expected to be available at the university's opening, the residences were planned to accommodate about 60% of the student body, later revised downward to the 40% range as private housing developed nearby. Initially nearly all first- and second-year students lived in the residences; later they came to house mainly first-year students. In 2017 the Global Village, a share-house style residence built under a private finance initiative, opened in the southeastern part of the Hirasuna area.

Dining and shops

The university has no officially recognized university co-op; all shops and dining facilities on campus are operated by private businesses contracted through the University of Tsukuba Kōseikai (welfare association). The Tsukuba campus has about twenty dining facilities in the lecture buildings, residence commons and headquarters building, including cafeterias, coffee shops, a soba restaurant and a soup restaurant; the former Third Area shopping arcade was renovated as a food court in December 2007, and a Starbucks opened inside the Central Library in March 2008. There are also six bookstores, bank and postal ATMs, a post office, an art supply store, convenience stores, a travel agency, a university goods shop and a childcare facility for staff.

Research performance

Tsukuba is ranked among the highest research institutions in Japan. According to Thomson Reuters, Tsukuba is the 10th best research institution among all universities and non-educational research institutions in Japan. The Weekly Diamond reported that Tsukuba had the 27th highest research standard in Japan in research funding per researcher in the COE Program, and ranked 11th in "Good Practice" funds per student. In January 2011, Research Papers in Economics ranked Tsukuba as the eighth highest economics research university in Japan.

Businesspeople

Kōta Matsuda – CEO of Tully's Coffee Japan

Akira Morikawa – CEO of LINE Corporation

Yoshiyuki Sankai – founder and CEO of Cyberdyne

Broadcasting facilities

A transmitter of the community radio station Radio Tsukuba (Tsukuba Community Broadcasting) is located in General Research Building B on the Tsukuba campus, with the station's licensed address at 1-1-1 Tennōdai, Tsukuba. The station (call sign JOZZ3BO-FM, 84.2 MHz, 10 W transmitter power, 10.5 W ERP) began broadcasting on 10 October 2008, with a service area covering about 37,910 households.