1. Financial Structure of Private Universities and Ritsumeikan University’s Basic Approach

Private universities in Japan operate under a twofold structural disparity: public spending on higher education is low by international standards, and national financial support is minimal compared with the support provided to national universities. Public spending on higher education in Japan remains at only 0.7% of GDP, compared with an OECD member-country average of 1.3%. In addition, public spending per student is 2.11 million yen for students at national universities and 190,000 yen for students at private universities, a gap of approximately 11-fold. Against this background, Ritsumeikan University’s basic financial structure is built around tuition and fees. These fees cover personnel costs for faculty and staff, the costs of classes and research, scholarships, and other expenses that support a wide range of learning opportunities. The University also sets aside funds for the future replacement and renewal of facilities, which helps sustain both its academic activities and its financial management over the long term.

Ritsumeikan University operates within this basic structure in its academic and financial management. For this reason, Ritsumeikan University has positioned student fees and its student-fee policy as the comprehensive point of connection between the conditions for learning and Academy finances, and has emphasized the concepts of education that responds to the weight of student fees and a tangible sense of learning and growth commensurate with student fees. The Plenary Council of the University has engaged in ongoing discussions to deepen understanding of the current status and issues of Academy finances and to consider whether education and research initiatives implemented and developed primarily through tuition and fees are contributing to the learning and growth of undergraduate and graduate students. In particular, since the first half of R2030, the University, the Student Union, and the Graduate Student Council have held more frequent regular meetings and consultations, deepening mutual understanding of education and research issues and financial management. Through discussions on the academic calendar, educational reform, research exchange, student fees and finance, and other matters, Academy co-creation activities have begun to expand. Going forward, it will be important to give these initiatives greater substance, make their content and outcomes more visible, and connect them more clearly to business plans and the formation of systems and policies. Since R2020, Ritsumeikan University has established a practice of formulating business plans in two five-year phases: a first half and a second half. In line with this, the University has also established five-year basic policies for financial management corresponding to the business plan periods and has conducted its financial management in accordance with those policies. This framework plays an important role in balancing academics and finance in the medium term. In recent years, the outlook for social conditions has become increasingly uncertain. To ensure the sustainability of the Academy’s various activities, it will be essential to steadily implement its business plans and basic financial management policies in the second half of R2030—enhancing the value created by Ritsumeikan University’s education and research initiatives and strengthening communication of their social significance. It will also be important to further deepen their connection with the key systems and policies that give concrete form to those initiatives.