Column Finance and the Social Security System 2018.06.21
【Aging, safety net and fiscal crisis in Japan】No.133: National and Public Universities with a High Risk of Hospital Management
In Column No.11, I showed that many national and public universities operate hospitals, and those hospitals will threaten the survival of the universities if they become deficient. In March 2018, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology released statistics supporting this conclusion.
Figure 1 shows the composition of income of 86 national universities, and Figure 2 shows the composition of income of 91 public universities. The percentage of hospital revenue to the total income is high at 36% for national universities and 46% for public universities. Some of these hospitals have fallen into structural deficiency mainly due to excessive investment. If their hospital expenses continue to exceed hospital revenue, they will be forced to reduce the budget of the university's original mission in education and research. The only way to avoid this risk is to separate the hospital from the university and allow it to merge with national and public hospitals in the same area.
Figure 1: Composition of incomes of 86 national universities
Source: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology
Figure 2: Composition of incomes of 91 public universities
Source: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology