Waseda and Kansai Remain the Top University Choices for Japanese Students
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Since 2008, Recruit has been conducting an annual university brand power survey, targeting third year high school students, to get a clearer understanding of student trends in choosing a university. For the 2023 survey, 150,000 questionnaires were sent out and 15,000 valid responses received. Waseda University remained top choice for the third consecutive year in the Kantō region as the academic institute where high school students wanted to study the most.
Kantō
Waseda University came top for the third year in a row, followed by Meiji and Aoyama Gakuin. For humanities courses, the top three universities were Meiji, Waseda, and Rikkyō, while for sciences they were Tokyo University of Science, Waseda, and then Chiba and Meiji in joint third place. The top ten did not include any national or public universities, but within the top twenty, there were four: Chiba in eleventh place, Tsukuba in thirteenth, Tokyo Metropolitan in sixteenth, and Yokohama National in seventeenth.
| Ranking | University | Desirability |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (1) | Waseda | 9.2 |
| 2 (2) | Meiji | 8.9 |
| 3 (3) | Aoyama Gakuin | 7.3 |
| 4 (6) | Chūō | 6.7 |
| 4 (4) | Rikkyō | 6.7 |
| 6 (8) | Hōsei | 6.1 |
| 7 (7) | Nihon | 5.6 |
| 8 (5) | Keiō | 5.1 |
| 9 (11) | Tōyō | 5.0 |
| 10 (12) | Tokyo University of Science | 4.6 |
Created by Nippon.com based on data from the Recruit Shingaku Sōken 2023 survey on university brand power. (Highlighting indicates national/public universities.)
Tōkai
Meijō and Nagoya held first and second place respectively for the seventh consecutive year. Nanzan, which placed third overall, remained the top choice for studying humanities for the third year running, while Meijō bounced back after two years to once again become first choice for studying sciences.
| Ranking | University | Desirability |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (1) | Meijō | 11.7 |
| 2 (2) | Nagoya | 7.8 |
| 3 (3) | Nanzan | 7.7 |
| 4 (4) | Chūkyō | 7.2 |
| 5 (14) | Aichi | 6.2 |
| 6 (10) | Chūbu | 5.3 |
| 7 (5) | Nagoya City | 5.2 |
| 8 (6) | Shizuoka | 4.9 |
| 9 (9) | Aichi Gakuin | 4.7 |
| 9 (15) | Aichi Shukutoku | 4.7 |
| 9 (8) | Mie | 4.7 |
Created by Nippon.com based on data from the Recruit Shingaku Sōken 2023 survey on university brand power. (Highlighting indicates national/public universities.)
Kansai
There is no doubting Kansai University’s overwhelming popularity as it ranked top for the sixteenth consecutive year, a place it has held since the start of the survey. Girls in particular hold the university in high regard, having made it their top choice throughout those sixteen years. By academic field, Kansai University remained first choice for the fifteenth year in a row for those wanting to study humanities, while the top pick for those wanting to study sciences was Osaka Metropolitan University (established in April 2022 through a merger of Osaka City University and Osaka Prefecture University).
| Ranking | University | Desirability |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (1) | Kansai | 14.5 |
| 2 (3) | Osaka Metropolitan | 12.6 |
| 2 (2) | Kindai | 12.6 |
| 4 (5) | Kwansei Gakuin | 9.2 |
| 5 (4) | Dōshisha | 8.6 |
| 6 (7) | Osaka | 8.4 |
| 6 (6) | Kobe | 8.4 |
| 8 (8) | Ritsumeikan | 7.8 |
| 9 (12) | Kōnan | 5.1 |
| 10 (9) | Ryūkoku | 4.8 |
Created by Nippon.com based on data from the Recruit Shingaku Sōken 2023 survey on university brand power. (Highlighting indicates national/public universities.)
Out of the three regions, at 56.1%, the Kantō region had the highest percentage of students preferring private to public or national universities. In the Tōkai region, on the other hand, 46.2% preferred public and national over private, although this was a 11.1% year-on-year drop. In the Kansai region, although public and national universities ranked higher in 2017 and 2018, in the five years since 2019 students have predominantly been choosing private universities.
(Translated from Japanese. Banner © Pixta.)