It was founded in 1897 under the provisions of
an 1872 Japanese law that established a system of imperial
universities admitting small numbers of carefully selected students
to be trained as scholars and imperial officials. Kyoto
Imperial University (Kyoto Teikoku Daigaku), popularly called
Kyodai, soon became one of the most important imperial
universities, surpassed in prestige only by Tokyo Imperial
University (now the University of Tokyo).
Because admission to Kyoto or
Tokyo is said to be essential for students who desire good jobs in
Japanese industry or civil service, admission to these universities
is highly competitive. The university has faculties of engineering,
science, agriculture, and medicine, among others, and a college of
liberal arts and sciences.
