Ritsumeikan University

First-ever university to be rated in Japan

Ritsumeikan University was rated the maximum five stars in five of the eight assessment categories and an overall four stars in an independent rating by one of the world’s leading educational assessment bodies, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS).

This award marks the first ever QS Stars assessment of a university in Japan.

Rated five stars in the categories of ‘Innovation’, ‘Teaching’, ‘Internationalization’, ‘Facilities’ and ‘Employability’, the result provides concrete evidence of the success of long-term strategies employed by the University to rise to the challenge of a rapidly changing global society.

R2020 Academic Vision

Today Ritsumeikan University stands as the original institution and catalyst for the development of a larger body of related educational institutions, known collectively as ‘The Ritsumeikan Academy’. Its members not only provide top quality education across a full range of ages and generations, but also uphold the University’s founding ideals.

On a regular 10-year basis, these ideals are formulated into a shared Academy Vision. The latest of which is as follows:

Carrying on our founding ideals of “Freedom and Innovation” and paying respect to our history, we, the members of The Ritsumeikan Academy, hereby establish the R2030 Academy Vision as a new declaration of what we aim to become in the year 2030.

Today, societies around the world are caught up in a whirlwind of change.
We face an uncertain future more difficult day by day to comprehend.
But the age demands of educational institutions a positive vision for the world of the future.
To realize the Ritsumeikan Vision, we must attract a diverse array of people while cultivating the virtues of flexibility and courage to change.
To this end, we must accept differing values and strive to better ourselves without fear of potential discord.
Together, we will overcome the limitations that have, until now, held us back and apart.
Together, we will rise to the challenge to create a world in which myriad human endeavors lead to a bright future, filled with the promise of hope, peace, and freedom.

School Spirit

The Ritsumeikan Academy is one of the private comprehensive educational institutions in Japan with rich history and tradition, and we celebrated the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Ritsumeikan private school and the 120th year of the establishment of the Academy in 2020. The Academy has now become a comprehensive educational institution with two universities, four high schools, four junior high schools and one primary school.

The history of Ritsumeikan dates back to 1869 when Prince Kinmochi Saionji, an eminent international statesman of modern Japan, founded “Ritsumeikan” as a private academy on the site of the Kyoto Imperial Palace. In 1900, Kojuro Nakagawa, former secretary of Prince Saionji, established Kyoto School of Law and Politics, an evening law school that was open to working people. This school formally adopted the name Ritsumeikan in 1913 and was finally given the status of a university in 1922.

The school spirit of liberalism and internationalism advocated by Prince Saionji was combined with the ideals of academic freedom and innovation pursued by Nakagawa, and became a tradition of the Academy.

Today, the Ritsumeikan Academy is highly admired by society as the educational institution which actively promotes the university reform. Such spirit of innovation and inspiration is simply based on the Academy’s school spirit, “freedom and innovation.”

Location of Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto

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