Japan's prestigious University of Tokyo is mulling an autumn start to its academic year, media said Wednesday, in a bid to improve its competitiveness among top-flight academic institutions worldwide.

An internal working group has proposed the change, which would bring the university -- one of the world's top institutions -- into line with global standards, in a report due to be released on Friday.

If the University of Tokyo decides to adopt it, the calendar change could come into force in five years' time, the Jiji and Kyodo news agencies reported.

About 70 percent of schools in the world begin their academic year in September or October, the group said, while April marks the start of the academic and business calendar in Japan.

Japan's educational cycle is "one of factors that restrict international exchanges of students and teachers," the group said, according to the media reports.

Only 1.9 percent of some 14,000 undergraduate students at the university are from overseas, compared with 10 percent for Harvard University in the United States.

But the change could make it hard for students to find employers, still hiring new graduates in April, and to prepare for exams for such professions as medicine, law and public service, which are timed to the current academic year.