Tokyo-based Keio University and the Kyoritsu University of Pharmacy have announced they will open talks on merging in April 2008.</PARAGRAPH> <PHOTO> <TABLE WIDTH='250' ALIGN='RIGHT' BORDER='0'> <TR> <TD><IMG ALT='News photo' BORDER='0' SRC='../images/photos2006/nn20061122a4a.jpg' WIDTH='250' HEIGHT='316'/></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><FONT SIZE='1'><B> Keio University President Yuichiro Anzai –

and Kyoritsu University of Pharmacy President Yoshiyuki Hashimoto face the media Monday night in Tokyo to announce their schools' plan to merge. KYODO PHOTO

They plan to work out a contract by March. If the plan materializes, Keio will set up a pharmaceutical faculty and graduate school pharmaceutical division, officials of both universities said.

The Kyoritsu University of Pharmacy has been considering joining Keio for several years and unofficially proposed the idea to Keio in October 2005. Kyoritsu made the formal proposal Nov. 6, officials said.

"We expect a merger to propel the levels of our research and work advantageously in the competition that private universities are facing," Keio President Yuichiro Anzai said Monday.

Kyoritsu President Yoshiyuki Hashimoto said a merger would provide a better educational environment for pharmaceutical students than studying in a school that has only one faculty.

Keio currently has nine undergraduate faculties and 11 graduate departments with about 32,300 students.

Kyoritsu, with some 970 students, has an undergraduate and graduate school.