[3] The university's motto is 'Boys, Be Ambitious', which is said to be the parting words of the American dean of the Agricultural College, William S.

Director of the Hokkaidō Development Commission Kuroda Kiyotaka, having traveled to America in 1870, looked to the American model of settling the new lands.

In September 1907, Tohoku Imperial University (東北帝國大學, Tōhoku teikoku daigaku) set up the faculty of Agriculture in Sapporo.

Although the incorporation has led to increased financial independence and autonomy, Hokkaido University is still partially controlled by the Japanese Ministry of Education.

Competitive scholarships are available for all graduate and undergraduate students enrolled in English degree programs, which range in amount from tuition discounts to full funding.

As with other English-based degree programs at the university, competitive scholarships are available for all graduate and undergraduate students, which range in amount from tuition discounts to full funding.

Upon enrolling, students will spend the first semester attaining an all-round education in the three sciences along with mathematics and Japanese language.

After this intensive first semester, students will join the department of Physics, chemistry or biology within the school of science.

[15] In 2016, the university launched the Hokkaido Summer Institute, a three-month-long program from June to August which offers a variety of classes for both undergraduate and graduate students.

Guest lecturers are invited from all over the world to share their expertise for the courses, which usually run for 1–2 weeks and grant students a small amount of academic credit.

The entirety of the campus measures approximately 180 hectares and houses academic and administrative buildings, research laboratories, student dormitories, and farmland.

[40] In an effort to boost their International Faculty Score, Hokkaido has recently been selected to be part of Japan's Super Global Universities Program.

The university received attention in 2010 when Professor Akira Suzuki won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry jointly with Richard F. Heck and Ei-ichi Negishi.

[47] Benjamin List, winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, is the principal investigator at the Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery of the Hokkaido University.

Also, Ei-ichi Negishi, special invited professor at the Institute for Catalysis (ICAT) of the Hokkaido University, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry as well.