What is COE?

(source : FY2003 White Paper on Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology,
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, 2004.)

In order to rank among the world's leading poles as well as to improve the standard of education and research and to cultivate further creative human resources, it is important for universities in Japan to promote a more competitive environment through national, public and private universities.

The basic concept of the so-called "21st Century COE Program" is implemented by MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Culture). Based on the "Policy for the Structural Reform of Universities" (June 2001), it aims at improving the university reform so that universities in Japan may become even more vigorous and internationally competitive than before.

"The 21st Century COE Program" mainly provides priority support to research and education centers with high research potential, by adding advanced human resources. It is expected that this project will also help to clarify the distinctiveness of each university, and revitalize the university as a whole.

Public recruitment targets courses at the graduate school level, knowing that affiliated research institutions are also taken into account. Concerning the selection screening, a fair third-party evaluation - implemented by "The 21st Century COE Program Committee, and mainly managed by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science - focus on the performance of research and education activities as well as on the relevance of the future concept of the applying universities. Each selected center is granted annual funding of approximately 100 to 500 million yen per project for, as a general rule, five continuous years. After a first period of two years, an interim evaluation of the project is implemented, as well as an ex-post-facto evaluation at the end of the term.

The merits of such a program, as well as the expectations for future developments, are extremely high, and concern not only people involved in the concerned Japanese universities but also overseas organizations.

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