University of Kyoto starts halal food for Muslim students

University of Kyoto (Kyodai), Japan's number two institution, has started to accomodate Muslim students. Perhaps some Japanese students will try eating halal as well?

 
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20091008f2.html

Thursday, Oct. 8, 2009

Kyoto University to serve halal food
Kyodo News

Kyoto University will start providing food permissible under Islamic law at the school's cafeteria to meet the needs of the increasing number of Muslim students on campus.

The cafeteria will introduce a halal food corner from Tuesday, avoiding pork and seasonings of pork origin, which Muslims are banned from eating. The new menus include chicken and croquettes made of broad beans, it said.

More than 1,000 Muslims live in the city of Kyoto, and many are Kyoto University students and their families.

The rare introduction is aimed at supporting such Muslim students, whose population is expected to rise under the university's plans to accept more foreign students.

While the co-op said it had problems in arranging a cooking environment to avoid mixing pork and related seasonings with halal food, it solved the issue by preparing the food at different hours.

ARWU World Rankings not much better for Japan's universities

To sum up the ARWU results in terms of Japanese universities:

1. One institution makes the top 20--Tokyo University. However, Todai fell from 19 in 2008 to 20 this year.
2. Kyoto University is in the top 30 at 24, but slipped from 23 in 2008.
3. Osaka, Nagoya and Tohoku are all in the top 100, at 71, 82, and 84, respectively. Tokyo Institute of Technology, unlike the QS table, IS NOT in the top 100.
4. Todai and Kyodai are still considered the top two universities for the Asia/Pacific region, unlike the findings of the QS results, which puts Australian National University at 17, very much higher than the ARWU's rank of 59.

The ARWU top 20 is:

http://www.arwu.org/ARWU2009.jsp

(Source: Academic Ranking of World Universities - 2009)

World Rank Institution Region Regional Rank Country National Rank Score on Alumni Score on Award Score on HiCi Score on N&S Score on PUB Score on PCP Total Score

1
Harvard University
Americas 1 1 100 100 100 100 100 74.8 100
2
Stanford University
Americas 2 2 39 78.7 87.1 67.3 70.1 66.9 73.1
3
University of California, Berkeley
Americas 3 3 67.4 77.1 68.4 71.1 69 53.2 71.0
4
University of Cambridge
Europe 1 1 89.4 91.5 53.8 53.9 65.4 65.5 70.2
5
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Americas 4 4 71 80.6 65.7 67.9 62 54.4 69.5
6
California Institute of Technology
Americas 5 5 51.5 69.1 57.1 66.2 47.7 100 64.8
7
Columbia University
Americas 6 6 70.6 67.7 55.7 49.1 69.6 46.5 61.7
8
Princeton University
Americas 7 7 57.8 85.2 61.6 41.5 45.7 61.4 60.2
9
University of Chicago
Americas 8 8 65.8 84.3 49.7 38.6 51.6 41.8 57.0
10
University of Oxford
Europe 2 2 57.6 57.9 48.9 49.8 66.1 45.7 56.3
11
Yale University
Americas 9 9 49.8 43.6 57.6 55.7 62.7 49.5 55.2
12
Cornell University
Americas 10 10 40.5 51.3 54.3 51.7 61.2 39.9 53.1
13
University of California, Los Angeles
Americas 11 11 23.8 42.8 57.4 50.3 74.5 36.2 52.3
14
University of California, San Diego
Americas 12 12 15.5 35.9 60.3 53.9 65.2 48 50.7
15
University of Pennsylvania
Americas 13 13 30.9 34.4 57.6 44.1 69 39.8 49.3
16
University of Washington
Americas 14 14 25 31.8 53.3 48.8 73.7 28.1 48.0
17
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Americas 15 15 37.5 35.5 52.3 39.8 66.7 28.6 46.7
18
University of California, San Francisco
Americas 16 16 0 36.8 53.8 49.7 59.9 46.7 45.9
19
The Johns Hopkins University
Americas 17 17 44.7 27.8 41.7 49.1 67.1 24.9 45.2
20
The University of Tokyo
Asia/Pacific 1 1 34.1 14.1 42.9 49 79.7 34.1 45.1

remainder of Japan's top 100 entries follows:
-------------------
24
Kyoto University
Asia/Pacific 2 2 34.6 34.9 38.4 34.6 67.3 31 42.7

71
Osaka University
Asia/Pacific 5 3 10.9 0 26.2 27.8 62 28.3 27.8

82
Nagoya University
Asia/Pacific 7 4 25 14.1 16.2 22.6 48.1 25.9 26.0

84
Tohoku University
Asia/Pacific 8 5 16.4 0 21.8 22.3 59.7 27.5 25.8

THES - QS University Rankings for 2008

The rankings for this year have been published and the entire rankings and a lot of useful information about the institutions that made the list can easily be accessed starting at the Rankings homepage:

http://www.topuniversities.com/

Complete rankings:

http://www.topuniversities.com/worlduniversityrankings/results/2008/overall_rankings/fullrankings/

Top 100:

http://www.topuniversities.com/university_rankings/results/2008/overall_rankings/top_100_universities/

Universities in Japan that made the global top 100 rankings:

19 University of TOKYO Japan
25 KYOTO University Japan
44 OSAKA University Japan
61 TOKYO Institute of Technology Japan

Top technology institutions:

http://www.topuniversities.com/worlduniversityrankings/results/2008/subject_rankings/technology/

Technology institutions in Japan that made the global technology top 100:

9 University of TOKYO Japan 67.4
21 TOKYO Institute of Technology Japan 57.0
22 KYOTO University Japan 56.8
49 OSAKA University Japan 42.3
98 TOHOKU University Japan 32.7

Summary of the results from a Japan higher education perspective.

Todai slipped back a bit. Perhaps Kyodai's rankings are too low considering its Nobel winners this year. Tokyo Institue of Technology continues to be a fast riser.