Japanese medical school suspected of discriminating against female applicants
Image: Facebook/Juntendo University
Juntendo University in Tokyo, Japan comes as the latest medical school to be suspected of discriminating against its female applicants. The university allegedly bridled the female applicants’ scores by assessing them using higher-passing thresholds, a finding that had Japan’s education ministry asking the university for an explanation.
The education ministry did a survey on 81 universities last August and discovered Juntendo University as having the largest gender gap in its acceptance rate in the past six years, reported Japan Times on Oct. 22. It was found that the rate of successful male applicants compared to their female counterparts were at 1.67.
As far as application processes were concerned, applicants to Juntendo University’s medical school composed of academic exams, followed by essay writing, and then interviews.
“In the most recent entrance exam this spring, 2,372 men and 1,779 women took the exam for Juntendo University with 239 men and 93 women passing,” the education ministry was quoted as saying.
The university, following the survey, has since organized an independent committee to conduct an investigation. Meanwhile, a university official denied that discrimination was committed against female applicants in their latest and past entrance exams.
This recent suspicion towards Juntendo University comes after Showa University, also in Tokyo, confessed last October to practicing improper admissions processes in their medical school.
Although Showa University denied that they discriminated against their applicants’ age and gender, they were found favoring high school students who graduated from school a year earlier. They also gave special treatment to applicants who were relatives of medical school graduates. Cody Cepeda/JB
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