Kyoto University is a national university located in Kyoto, Japan. It is the second oldest Japanese university,one of the highest ranked universities in Asia and one of Japan's National Seven Universities. One of Asia’s leading research-oriented institutions, Kyoto University is famed for producing world-class researchers, including ten Nobel Prize laureates, two Fields medalists and one Gauss Prize.
History
The forerunner of the Kyoto University was the Chemistry School founded in Osaka in 1869, which, despite its name, taught physics as well . It was established in the place of Seimi-kyoku in 1886, it then transferred to the university's present main campus in the same year.
Kyoto Imperial University as a part of the Imperial University system was established on June 18, 1897, using the Third Higher School's buildings. The higher school moved to a patch of land just across the street, where the Yoshida South Campus stands today. In the same year of the university's establishment, the College of Science and Technology was founded. The College of Law and the College of Medicine were founded in 1899, the College of Letters in 1906, expanding the university's activities to areas outside natural science.
After World War II, the current Kyoto University was established by merging the imperial university and the Third Higher School, which assumed the duty of teaching liberal arts as the Faculty of Liberal Arts . The faculty was dissolved with the foundation of the Faculty of Integrated Human Studies (総合人間学部 Sōgō-ningen-gakubu?) in 1992.
Kyoto University has since 2004 been incorporated as a national university corporation under a new law which applies to all national universities.
Academic rankings:-
The Academic Ranking of World Universities ranked the Kyoto University as follows:
YearJapanAsiaWorld
20152nd2nd26th
20142nd2nd26th
20132nd2nd26th
20122nd2nd26th
20112nd2nd27th
20102nd2nd24th
20092nd2nd24th
20082nd2nd23rd
The Times Higher Education ranked the Kyoto University as follows:
YearJapanAsiaWorld
2015-20162nd9th88th
2014-20152nd9th59th
2013-20142nd7th52nd
2012-20132nd7th54th
2011-20122nd5th52nd
2010-20112nd8th57th
General rankings
The university was ranked 3rd in 2008 and 2010 in the ranking "Truly Strong Universities" by Toyo Keizai.In another ranking, Japanese prep school Kawaijuku ranked Kyodai as the 2nd best university in Japan.
Kyodai is also one of the top universities in the world. The following rankings are the example of Kyodai's ranking positions in the world rankings.
Kyoto University was ranked 24th in the world in the 2010 Academic Ranking of World Universities
11th worldwide in the Global University Ranking.
A human competitiveness index and analysis by the Human Resources & Labor Review, and published in Chasecareer Network, ranked the university 24th internationally and 2nd in Asia for 2010.
QS World University Rankings in 2011 placed Kyoto University 32nd overall in the world, one behind University of Melbourne, seven places lower than the previous year.
The 2011 QS Asian Rankings make Kyoto University the seventh highest ranked university in Asia, the highest being The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Research performance
Kyodai is usually considered as one of the top research institution in Japan. In fact, the 2nd largest amount of investment from Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, which is the national grants program for research institutions.
This financial support from the Japanese government has a direct effect on Kyodai's research outcomes. According to Thomson Reuters, Kyodai is the 1st best research university in Japan.Its research excellence is especially distinctive in Chemistry (1st in Japan, 4th in the world), Biology & Biochemistry (2nd in Japan, 23rd in the world), Pharmacology & Toxicology (2nd in Japan,30 in the world), Immunology (3rd in Japan, 25th in the world), Material Science (4th in Japan, 22nd in the world), and Physics (4th in Japan, 25th in the world).