【Current Situation of Tsukuba University】

Tsukuba University was founded as a university based on a new concept in Tsukuba Science City, the heartland of Japan's research community. It was built to be an open-minded university with an educational and research system that flexibly responds to academic progress in research and to societal needs. Dr. Tomonaga and Dr. Esaki were both awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, and Dr. Shirakawa was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Tsukuba University ranked 221st in the world and 10th in Japan for the number of times its research papers were cited during a decade from 1994. Funded by university funds, young researchers have been employed for a term of 3 to 5 years and provided with a research environment which includes research funds, research space, and support for research exchanges. In 1994, the TARA Center was the first institution in Japan to adopt a system of a fixed term of employment based on external evaluation, and in 2002, that system was also implemented in the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences. In 2005, the Institute of Biological Sciences was the first in Japan to implement a tenure track system for lecturers and assistant professors. On the basis of the results of this pioneering employment system, the go-ahead was given in January 2007 to incorporate the tenure track system or the system of a fixed term of employment throughout the University during the first intermediate trial phase.