Panel blasts University of Tokyo over corruption scandals

"The self-correcting function is seriously lacking in the organization as a whole," the group said in a report released Friday.

The report listed issues found in the university's response to two scandals involving a professor of the university and a doctor of its hospital, respectively, both of whom had been dismissed.

It mainly discussed the case of former professor Shinichi Sato, 62, who has been indicted over the favors he allegedly provided in connection with joint research in return for lavish entertainment.

The report criticized the university for suspending its internal probe into the case for a long time on the grounds of police investigations, saying that the act means the university abandoned its self-correcting function and accountability.

It was problematic that the university did not conduct hearings from a whistleblower in the scandal and that it took time to take punitive action against Sato, the report also said.

Cited as factors behind these problems were a lack of crisis awareness and imagination at the university, the culture of not interfering with one another among researchers and teachers and disregard of the university's decision-making process.

The group called on the university to establish an internal audit body that can propose improvements to the leadership, reform its disciplinary system and conduct third-party checks on recurrence preventive measures.

Toshiaki Yamaguchi, head of the group, said the university, which used to be part of the national public service system, has a tendency to avoid confronting unjust and problematic acts.

"I hope the university will keep in mind that even the University of Tokyo could have problems and become an organization with a self-correcting function," Yamaguchi said.