Nara Women’s University

Nara Women's University is a national university located in the Nara prefecture in Japan. It was first established in 1908 with the aim to train female teachers for schools. It was then reorganised and given its current name in 1949. These days the university runs from kindergarten to graduate school, from the age of three years old upwards. The university has three faculties: the faculty of letters, the faculty of science and the faculty of human life and environment. The last faculty is the only one of its kind at a women's college in Japan. There are also two graduate programmes in humanities and science. Two buildings on the campus are classified as Important Cultural Properties, judged to be of particular importance to the Japanese people by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. These are the Memorial Hall and the Main Gate. The university has a number of international student exchange agreements including Nanjing University, National Taiwan University College of Liberal Arts, Ewha Womans University, Hanoi University, Kabul University, University of Leicester, KU Leuven, University of Bologna, Mills College, University of Canberra and Lincoln University among others. International students will be housed on campus in the International Student House and the International House. They will also be offered Japanese language courses regardless of which faculty they are studying in. Summer programmes are also available in Japanese and English. The university has a selective admissions process. Between 10 and 20 per cent of students that apply are admitted, giving it one of the most selective admissions processes in Japan.