University of Tsukuba — photo 1 University of Tsukuba — photo 2 University of Tsukuba — photo 3
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University of Tsukuba

Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
#351 QS World University Rankings 2027
QS World University Rankings 2027 #351
Founded 1973
International 2,341
Core campuses 3

University overview

The University of Tsukuba was created in October 1973 by relocating the Tokyo University of Education to Tsukuba Science City, 50 km north-east of Tokyo, as a deliberately new kind of comprehensive national university. It teaches ten undergraduate schools and three reorganised graduate schools on one very large campus, with a Tokyo campus at Otsuka for its business programmes and a degree-granting campus in Malaysia. Seven undergraduate courses in five programmes are taught entirely in English — Tsukuba states in writing that Japanese ability does not affect entry to them and that all required classes are in English until graduation — alongside some thirty English-taught master's programmes.

Academic scale

10 Undergraduate schools, plus the School of Integrative and Global Majors and the Malaysia campus
3 Graduate schools since the 2020 reorganisation — Business Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences; Science and Technology; Comprehensive Human Sciences
37 English-taught programmes listed here — 7 undergraduate and 30 graduate
2,375 students in Comprehensive Human Sciences, the largest graduate area; then Systems and Information Engineering 1,477 and Life and Earth Sciences 1,094

Global community

2,341 international students, from 114 countries and regions, as of 1 May 2025
1,198 of them from China; then Indonesia 113, Republic of Korea 101, Taiwan 94 and Vietnam 63
171 of 5,504 faculty and staff are not Japanese — 142 teaching faculty and 29 staff

Three core campuses

Tsukuba Campus Almost the whole university, on one very large site 50 km north-east of Tokyo, divided into five named areas: Central (teaching buildings, Central Library), South (arts and sport), West (medicine and the hospital), North and Kasuga.
Tokyo Campus (Otsuka) The evening and weekend graduate campus for working professionals, five minutes from Myogadani Station. Home of the Degree Programs in Business Sciences, the Law School, and the MBA Program in International Business taught in English.
University of Tsukuba, Malaysia (UTMy) Opened on 1 September 2024 inside the University of Malaya — the first degree-awarding faculty a Japanese university has established overseas. It houses the School of Transdisciplinary Science and Design.

More facts

1973 founded by relocating the Tokyo University of Education to Tsukuba Science City, 50 km north-east of Tokyo — a deliberate rebuild, not a new campus for an old university
1973 Nobel Prize in Physics to Leo Esaki, in the university's founding year; he later served as its president
"7 courses in 5 programs are taught in English. Students' Japanese language level will not affect them to enter these courses. All required classes are taught in English until graduation." — Tsukuba's own undergraduate statement
4 Japan-Expert courses sit alongside them and are taught in Japanese, requiring JLPT N3 or N2 to apply — Tsukuba draws the line itself, on the same page
¥535,800 a year in tuition for AY2026, with a ¥282,000 admission fee, paid in two instalments on 27 May and 27 November
¥608,800 a year from 1 April 2027 for international students on a "Student" residence status — the first differential international tuition in this catalogue. Current students keep the old rate until they graduate.
Faculty belong to institutes, not to teaching departments, so one supervisor can sit across several degree programmes — which is why almost every Tsukuba guideline asks you to contact a supervisor before you apply.
University figures verified 8 Sep 2026

Funding

7 external scholarships name this university among their designated schools.

This university’s own scholarships and tuition reductions are not listed here — the source excludes them. Check the university directly.

University sources (5)