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Since 2004, when national universities ¨C which are more highly ranked than Japan¡¯s private universities ¨C were incorporated to make them more autonomous, public funding has been cut by about 1 per cent a year, said Futao Huang, a professor at the Research Institute for Higher Education at Hiroshima University.

Needing new sources of funds and able to raise tuition fees by only a limited amount, income from their hospitals has proved the ¡°best and quickest way¡± to boost income, he said.

¡°For example, they have asked patients to do more medical examinations or to come to receive medical treatment more frequently than before to generate more income,¡± Professor Huang said.

Hospital income now accounts for almost as much as public allocations, according to these figures ¨C taken from a new analysis paper by Professor Huang, ¡°Changes and challenges to higher education financing in Japan¡±.

david.matthews@tesglobal.com