Osaka University: Institution Main

About Osaka University:

Osaka University (大阪大学 Ōsaka daigaku or 阪大 Handai) grew from earlier institutions: (懐徳堂 Kaitokudō) a school for local citizens founded in 1724 and (適塾 Tekijuku) a school of Dutch Studies (蘭学 Rangaku) founded in 1838 for samurai by Koan Ogata (緒方洪庵 Ogata Kōan).  In 1869, Osaka Prefectural Medical School (later the Osaka Medical College) was founded.  In 1931, the college merged with College of Science to form Osaka Imperial University (大阪帝國大学 Ōsaka teikoku daigaku) and was inaugurated as the 6th imperial university.  Two years later, with a merger with Osaka Technical College, the school of Engineering was established.  In 1947, the university was renamed Osaka University.

Handai had five faculties: Science, Medicine, Engineering, Letters, and Law.  The university successively added new faculties, graduate programs, and research institutes and is considered one of Japan's top national universities, especially noted in the sciences and engineering disciplines, and the School of Human Sciences, which covers cross-disciplinary research interests broadly within psychology, sociology, and education.  Furthermore, the university in conjunction with the Osaka University of Foreign Studies constitute one of two national university centers noted for their Schools of Foreign Studies; the other institution is the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.  After the merger, Osaka university became the largest national university in Japan with 11 faculties (学部 Gakubu) at the undergraduate level and 15 graduate schools (大学院 Daigakuin).

Osaka University is one of the top research institutions in Japan. According to Thomson Reuters, Handai is the 3rd best research university in Japan.  Its research excellence is especially distinctive in Biology & Biochemistry (1st in Japan, 4th in the world), Materials Science (2nd in Japan, 12th in the world), Physics (3rd in Japan, 22nd in the world), Chemistry (3rd in Japan, 12th in the world), and Immunology (3rd in Japan, 28th in the world).

Handai also is highly ranked in Economics. In January 2011, Repec, Research Papers in Economics, ranked Handai's Economic department as Japan's 2nd best economic research university. Handai has provided 5 presidents of Japanese Economic Association in its 42 year history.

Handai has 3 campuses: Suita, Toyonaka, and Minoh.

Osaka University was designed as one of Japan's Global 30 institutions.