Ritsumeikan University Admission 2027: Deadlines, Requirements, Fees for International Students

Admission at a glance

Ritsumeikan University is one of Japan's largest private universities, with campuses across Kyoto, the Osaka Ibaraki Campus and Shiga. Its English-medium Undergraduate Programs office coordinates five distinct English-taught bachelor's routes. The College of Global Liberal Arts (GLA) runs a college-wide dual degree with the Australian National University; students start in the RU-ANU Major and may move to a Ritsumeikan-only major depending on language and academic progress. The College of International Relations offers the Global Studies Major, running since 2011, the Community and Regional Policy Studies (CRPS) major, and the American University-Ritsumeikan Joint Degree Program, the first undergraduate joint degree between a Japanese and a United States university. The College of Information Science and Engineering runs the Information Systems Science and Engineering (ISSE) course. Each programme runs its own sequence of application periods across the year, with its own English test minimum: the joint degree with American University asks for the highest scores, Global Liberal Arts and Global Studies sit in the middle, and CRPS and ISSE ask for the lowest. Every programme charges a flat JPY 5,000 application fee and a JPY 200,000 one-time admission fee, on top of tuition that varies by programme and is higher in year one before settling to a lower per-semester rate from year two onward.

Requirements

Bachelor

Ritsumeikan's English-medium undergraduate programmes admit applicants who have completed, or expect to complete, secondary education equivalent to a Japanese high school diploma. English test minimums differ by programme: College of Global Liberal Arts asks for IELTS 6.5 or TOEFL iBT 81, the American University joint degree asks for IELTS 6.5 or TOEFL iBT 85, the Global Studies Major asks for IELTS 6.0 or TOEFL iBT 76, and the Community and Regional Policy Studies major and the Information Systems Science and Engineering course ask for IELTS 5.5 or TOEFL iBT 72. IELTS One Skill Retake results are not accepted and test scores must be within two years of the application deadline.

Full requirements and documents