The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), out of Shanghai, China, has its merits: it comes out in August, and when differences across universities are not statistically significant, it places them in a tie rather than letting the chips arbitrarily fall where they may.
This year's list is somewhat kinder to Japanese universities, which clearly still dominate their designated region, the Asia-Pacific.
Full information is at the links below. The quoted material after the links highlights how Japanese institutions did in the top 200. Nine make the list. To summarize, Todai/U. of Tokyo is number 20 worldwide and top in Japan and Asia. Japan's number 2, Kyodai/Kyoto U., is still in the top 30 at a respectable 24.
Despite all the government money now going to Waseda and Keio, no private university is in the top 200 (the main weakness: science and technology). This is really a list of elite national universities (now 'national university corporations' or 'NUCs') in Japan. However, it is important to note that most NUCs are not elite, and it's interesting that the top universities in Taiwan and S. Korea were also national universities (of Japan--national imperial universities!).
http://www.arwu.org/index.jsp
http://www.arwu.org/ARWU2010_2.jsp
in top 100
---------------------
20 The University of Tokyo Asia/Pacific 1
24 Kyoto University Asia/Pacific 2
75 Osaka University Asia/Pacific 6
79 Nagoya University Asia/Pacific 7
84 Tohoku University Asia/Pacific 8
in top 200
--------------------
101-150 Tokyo Institute of Technology Asia/Pacific 10-18
151-200 Hokkaido University Asia/Pacific 19-26
151-200 Kyushu University Asia/Pacific 19-26
151-200 University of Tsukuba Asia/Pacific 19-26
Showing posts with label global rankings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label global rankings. Show all posts
20 September 2010
19 September 2010
Japanese universities do even worse with THES world rankings
In the new THES global rankings, Japan higher education only manages to place 5 universities in the top 200. No institution in Japan makes the top 10 or 20. Only one university makes the top 30--that is Toudai/University of Tokyo. No private universities placed. Kyoudai/Kyoto University's rank of 57 seems out of place because we are used to seeing Kyoudai as a top 30 institution in the old THES-QS tables. These results are even more disappointing than the QS results summarized and posted here last week. Also, China has placed SIX institutions in the top 200--a result that will be interpreted as China overtaking Japan in still yet another area. On the other hand, the top university in China, Beijing University, has yet to crack the top 30.
See the full list of 200 and total score at the link below. The excerpt after that shows only the Japanese universities that made it into the top 200.
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2010-2011/top-200.html
26 University of Tokyo
57 Kyoto University
112 Tokyo Institute of Technology
130 Osaka University
132 Tohoku University
See the full list of 200 and total score at the link below. The excerpt after that shows only the Japanese universities that made it into the top 200.
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2010-2011/top-200.html
26 University of Tokyo
57 Kyoto University
112 Tokyo Institute of Technology
130 Osaka University
132 Tohoku University
08 September 2010
Japan gets 10 institutions in the QS World University Rankings Results for 2010
Japan gets 10 institutions in the QS World University Rankings Results for 2010
This year it is the 'THES-less' QS rankings. THES is pursuing a different methdology with a different partner.
The results for Japan are about the same as last year with a bit of 'slippage' down in the rankings for most all the institutions. Japan does not rate any in the top ten or top twenty. Todai and Kyodai are neck-and-neck in the top 30 now. Waseda is the only private university to make the top 200.
While we can not say conclusively that Japan's university reforms of the last two decades CAUSED the deterioration of its institutions' rankings, we can say they obviously didn't help (unless someone wants to make the forlorn argument that the reforms ameliorated the deterioration somewhat).
See link below for the full list of 200 at the QS website.
http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2010/results
Top 30, which includes TWO universities from Japan (Toudai and Kyoudai):
1 University of Cambridge United Kingdom
2 Harvard University United States
3 Yale University United States
4 UCL (University College London) United Kingdom
5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) United States
6 University of Oxford United Kingdom
7 Imperial College London United Kingdom
8 University of Chicago United States
9 California Institute of Technology (Caltech) United States
10 Princeton University United States
11 Columbia University United States
12 University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) United States
13 Stanford University United States
14 Duke University United States
15 University of Michigan United States
16 Cornell University United States
17 Johns Hopkins University United States
18 ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) A* Switzerland
19 McGill University Canada
20 Australian National University (ANU) A* Australia
21 King's College London (KCL) United Kingdom
22 University of Edinburgh United Kingdom
23 University of Hong Kong (HKU) Hong Kong
24 University of Tokyo, The Japan
25 Kyoto University Japan
26 Northwestern University United States
27 University of Bristol United Kingdom
28 University of California, Berkeley (UCB) United States
29 University of Toronto Canada
30 University of Manchester United Kingdom
---------------------
THREE more Japanese universities making the top 100:
49 Osaka University Japan
60 Tokyo Institute of Technology Japan
91 Nagoya University Japan
---------------------
FIVE more making the top 200:
102 Tohoku University Japan
153 Kyushu University Japan
172 University of Tsukuba Japan
175 Hokkaido University Japan
182 Waseda University Japan
This year it is the 'THES-less' QS rankings. THES is pursuing a different methdology with a different partner.
The results for Japan are about the same as last year with a bit of 'slippage' down in the rankings for most all the institutions. Japan does not rate any in the top ten or top twenty. Todai and Kyodai are neck-and-neck in the top 30 now. Waseda is the only private university to make the top 200.
While we can not say conclusively that Japan's university reforms of the last two decades CAUSED the deterioration of its institutions' rankings, we can say they obviously didn't help (unless someone wants to make the forlorn argument that the reforms ameliorated the deterioration somewhat).
See link below for the full list of 200 at the QS website.
http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2010/results
Top 30, which includes TWO universities from Japan (Toudai and Kyoudai):
1 University of Cambridge United Kingdom
2 Harvard University United States
3 Yale University United States
4 UCL (University College London) United Kingdom
5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) United States
6 University of Oxford United Kingdom
7 Imperial College London United Kingdom
8 University of Chicago United States
9 California Institute of Technology (Caltech) United States
10 Princeton University United States
11 Columbia University United States
12 University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) United States
13 Stanford University United States
14 Duke University United States
15 University of Michigan United States
16 Cornell University United States
17 Johns Hopkins University United States
18 ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) A* Switzerland
19 McGill University Canada
20 Australian National University (ANU) A* Australia
21 King's College London (KCL) United Kingdom
22 University of Edinburgh United Kingdom
23 University of Hong Kong (HKU) Hong Kong
24 University of Tokyo, The Japan
25 Kyoto University Japan
26 Northwestern University United States
27 University of Bristol United Kingdom
28 University of California, Berkeley (UCB) United States
29 University of Toronto Canada
30 University of Manchester United Kingdom
---------------------
THREE more Japanese universities making the top 100:
49 Osaka University Japan
60 Tokyo Institute of Technology Japan
91 Nagoya University Japan
---------------------
FIVE more making the top 200:
102 Tohoku University Japan
153 Kyushu University Japan
172 University of Tsukuba Japan
175 Hokkaido University Japan
182 Waseda University Japan
08 July 2010
Who evaluates the evaluators? University rankings face shake up and more competition
Nature reports that university rankings are set to change for the better, with more sophisticated tools used to rank the world's HE and research institutions. As we have been following global rankings of universities and how they appear to be prejudiced against Asian institutions (except Hong Kong and Singapore), we thought we would point out this article published earlier this year.
Perhaps the biggest change is that the THES rankings will be based on data from Thomson Reuters from now on, not QS. Meanwhile, QS plans to press on and improve its own methodology. Moreover, other rankings and more nuanced and balanced methodologies are going to challenge the dominance of THES and ARWU (compiled by Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China). The former is often criticized as too unbalanced toward 'reputation' and volatile while the latter is said to emphasize scientific research results above all else. However, Japanese institutions fare about as well on both (which is, not very well) even though you might think a research bias would help them on ARWU.
Url and excerpt follows:
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100303/full/464016a.html
Published online 3 March 2010 | Nature 464, 16-17 (2010)
excerpt:
Several approaches to university rankings now being developed are switching the emphasis away from crude league tables and towards more nuanced assessments that could provide better guidance for policy-makers, funding bodies, researchers and students alike. They promise to rank universities on a much wider range of criteria, and assess more intangible qualities, such as educational excellence. And the THE ranking list is trying to remake itself in the face of the criticism.
end of excerpt, for entire article see link
Perhaps the biggest change is that the THES rankings will be based on data from Thomson Reuters from now on, not QS. Meanwhile, QS plans to press on and improve its own methodology. Moreover, other rankings and more nuanced and balanced methodologies are going to challenge the dominance of THES and ARWU (compiled by Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China). The former is often criticized as too unbalanced toward 'reputation' and volatile while the latter is said to emphasize scientific research results above all else. However, Japanese institutions fare about as well on both (which is, not very well) even though you might think a research bias would help them on ARWU.
Url and excerpt follows:
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100303/full/464016a.html
Published online 3 March 2010 | Nature 464, 16-17 (2010)
excerpt:
Several approaches to university rankings now being developed are switching the emphasis away from crude league tables and towards more nuanced assessments that could provide better guidance for policy-makers, funding bodies, researchers and students alike. They promise to rank universities on a much wider range of criteria, and assess more intangible qualities, such as educational excellence. And the THE ranking list is trying to remake itself in the face of the criticism.
end of excerpt, for entire article see link
15 March 2010
A two-year retrospective on 'Japan Higher Education Outlook'
This is more or less a re-post from last month in hopes of it being found by a few more people who come in the front door and very quickly leave by the same door. So it is being re-posted to put it at the top and front of the blog for a while.
---------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------
Japan Higher Education Outlook has been in existence for over two years now. So it might be a good time to look back on some of the original content.
Here is a list of key feature articles that appeared here. These are articles that are for the most part exclusive of the ones that appeared under the 'TEFL Forum' title series.
But first, here are a few comments on some of the news and trends analyzed in the past two years of articles:
-Instead of getting more universities into the world's top 30, Japan's one top 20 university, Tokyo U., dropped out of the top 20.
-The new research university being founded in Okinawa has faltered, hitting budget limitations due to the ongoing fiscal crisis of the national government.
-The often-predicted demographic disaster awaiting Japan's large HE sector still awaits--offset by the fact that more and more young women are continuing onto four-year programs and graduate school.
-Meanwhile, the lines drawn across terms like 'university', 'college' and 'special training school/college' are being blurred: Two-year colleges have got into vocational programs and four-year programs in order to stay in business. It also seems that 'special training colleges' will hook up with universities and colleges because they need students, but their administrations have something the universities need as well: management skills in running vocationally relevant programs that lead to graduates getting certifications, qualifications, careers.
-And while the continuance rate from senior high to universities and colleges hasn't hit 60%, it is rising and for many students there are more and more ways to get into the programs of their choice (most students choose 2 or 3 institutions to apply for).
-And the top-rated universities like Toudai have more applicants than ever because many are hopeful that the demographic decline favors their chances to win the placement lottery. .
Links and introductory excerpts have been dug out from the archives for your convenience.
Original feature articles at JHEO:
1. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2009/12/profile-of-japans-top-university-u-of.html
16 December 2009
Profile of Japan's top university--U. of Tokyo (Toudai)
Recently Toudai dropped out of the THES-QS top 20 ranking of universities worldwide. I thought this would be a good time to run an alternative version of an earlier piece on the University of Tokyo.
---------------------------
Is University of Tokyo Japan's only world-class university?
Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui, Japan
It is unique and elite
When the university system of Japan is compared internationally, one institution is most often cited as Japan's best example of a 'world-class' university. This is, of course, the University of Tokyo (Toukyou Daigaku' or 'Toudai' for short). Toudai is perhaps most famous for graduating and networking elite bureaucrats and politicians, including prime ministers; however, the supposed lock on leadership in top government has waned over the past two decades. For example, this century's most popular prime minister of Japan, Junichiro Koizumi, and many of his advisors were graduates of the private elite Keio University.
2. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2009/04/end-of-japans-national-development-and.html
10 April 2009
The End of Japan's National Development State for Higher Education
Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui, Japan
Introduction
Japan's vast higher education system has around 5,000 institutions, with the count still growing. This includes a tertiary level of about 1,300 government-certified, degree-awarding colleges and universities. Seven hundred forty-five of these are designated as 'daigaku'--a term which refers to any institution that has received government sanction to award four-year degrees equivalent to a baccalaureate. These four-year universities along with junior and technical colleges enroll close to three million undergraduate students, including about 120,000 foreign nationals, the vast majority of whom are from China.
3. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/10/demographic-disaster-for-higher-ed-in.html
27 October 2008
Demographic Disaster for Higher Ed in Japan? Parts II-III
by Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui
Introduction
In early September 2006, I gave a presentation at a conference in Langkawi, Malaysia. The conference, which focused mostly on educational management issues in higher education, was hosted by the South East Asian Association for Institutional Research (SEAAIR) and the Open University of Malaysia. My talk was titled, "Japan's Tertiary Education System: Developments in the Koizumi Era of Reform".
In the resulting paper (which was published in the proceedings of the conference), I attempted to sum up twenty years of university reform with the following:
Those two prior decades of changes in tertiary education leading
up to the creation of the NUCs [Japan's 87 national universities
were re-chartered as 'national university corporations' in 2003-4]
comprised many profound developments....:
-the establishment of a handful of new research universities and
institutes, decision-making at which flows from a central
administration....
-the expansion of graduate program and their enrollments,
including American-style professional schools of business,
law, and accounting;
-growth in doctoral and post-doctoral programs....
-a steady increase in the number of international students
hosted, to over 120,000 annually, about 25% enrolled in
graduate schools;
-more public funding of the entire tertiary sector...with a
target of 1% of GDP;
-increased funding for research (including more basic
research) to compensate for its decline in private industry...
with a target of 7-8% of annual national budgets, and a
national goal approaching 3% of GDP for ALL scientific R&D
(with national government spending accounting for 1% of GDP);
-legislative and regulatory changes that allowed the national
universities to tie up with other entities to pursue research and
expand course offerings....
-parallel changes that allowed national university academics
to serve on the boards of NPOs and for-profit corporations;
-internal and external systems of evaluation, independent of
national government certification....
4. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/04/japans-tertiary-education-system.html
18 April 2008
Japan's Tertiary Education System: Developments in the Koizumi Era of Reform
Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui, Japan
With this first JPN HEO blog post of April 2008, I am using this forum to publish an article that was delivered as a paper at the SEAAIR conference in Langkawi, Malaysia, in September 2006. It will serve as something of a retrospective on happenings in higher education during the Koizumi years of 2000-6 and the preceding years that set up the reforms of what now could be called a political era for Japan.
News posts on the demographic crisis and reasons for the failure of English education will follow in the remaining days of April.
Japan's Tertiary Education System: Developments in the Koizumi Era of Reform
by Charles Jannuzi
Abstract
This paper will survey the major developments and changes that have taken place during the past decade in Japan's tertiary education system and put them into international (comparative) and historical perspectives. It also will attempt to assess critically the impact of major reforms on the national and public universities (and the response of the more numerous private universities to these reforms as well). For example, as of 1 April 2004, Japan's 87 national universities were 'denationalized' and incorporated into 'autonomous institutions'(or 'juridical persons') giving them, at least in theory, wider discretionary powers over personnel management, teaching and research assignments, program and curriculum development. The new status was supposed to result in more local autonomy within each institution over the allocation of money for their mandated missions in teaching, conveying public services to their regions, and conducting basic and applied research in science and technology. Have such top-down reforms proven effective, and have their effects matched the government's stated intentions? It is the author's contention that, not only are the reforms a classic case of reform over-reach, but that Japan's overbuilt university system will face demographic, financial and socio-cultural crises that the current Koizumi era of reform, now coming to its close, has utterly failed to address.
5. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/03/teaching-as-foreign-national-at.html
10 March 2008
Teaching as a Foreign National at Japanese Universities: Shifting Terms of Institutional Status, Employment, Work Conditions and Related Concerns
Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui, Japan
Introduction
The Japanese tertiary system consists of some 1250 national, public, and private four- and two-year institutions. At these degree-awarding universities and colleges, the terms 'foreign lecturer' or 'foreign instructor' refer to any non-Japanese personnel teaching below the status of professor. Most typically though the terms refer to full-time foreign language teachers who are 'native speakers' of the language they teach.
The vast majority of these foreign nationals teach English as a foreign language (EFL), but the number teaching other important languages, especially Asian ones, such as Mandarin Chinese, has also risen significantly during the past two decades. The non-Japanese teaching EFL in Japan are often assigned general English classes as part or all of their teaching duties. General English refers to service course English required as part of general education requirements of tertiary education.
6. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/03/from-university-research-centers-to.html
02 March 2008
From university research centers to international research hubs?
Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui, Japan
In the post-bubble Japan of the 1990s, the private sector's ability to finance scientific research and development went into stagnation and then decline. So from 1995 on the government has pursued an expanded role in the management and funding of scientific R&D at annual levels that equal or exceed 1% of GDP. In great part this has been through the dominant role of its super-ministry, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and its five-year 'Science and Technology Basic Plans'.
In order to increase public subsidy of scientific research-- while at the same time forcing research universities and research institutes to compete for funds--MEXT established a 'Centers of Excellence' program. However, this turned out to be a fairly diffuse program, paying for the construction of dozens of new research facilities all over the country at the former national universities and a handful of elite private ones. While this did a lot to help refurbish the appearance of the visibly deteriorated national universities, its actual boost to important scientific results is questionable.
7. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/02/demographic-disaster-for-higher-ed-in.html
10 February 2008
Demographic Disaster for Higher Education in Japan? Part I
by Charles Jannuzi
Introduction
This will be a three-part series for the Japan HEO Blog. This first installment will be a short introduction of the series and then follow with an analysis of Anglophone news coverage of Japan. This is, after all, an English-language blog on Japan.
Part two will consist of analysis of recent articles which appeared in the FT, New York Times, Guardian and Kyodo News Service which have covered the 'demographic disaster' that is supposed to be looming over higher education in Japan. Going straight to the strong points of the argument for a disaster scenario for HE in Japan, I will try to point out some of the flaws and gaps in the analysis.
The third and final part, which will most likely appear late in March 2008 (when the single correspondent of the Japan HEO Blog doesn't have to teach classes), I will put forth a different analysis in an attempt to answer the puzzling question, "Why, if high school graduate and university-eligible populations are in steady and unrecoverable decline, is Japan building still yet more universities?" Does someone in the HE sector here know something that everyone else doesn't? Or are they delusional?
8. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/02/extended-look-at-academic-freedom-in-he.html
03 February 2008
Academic freedom in Japan's higher education--a more in-depth look
by Charles Jannuzi
Introduction
Many attempts at analyzing the nature of government in post-war Japan tend to emphasize continuity with 'old' Japan and its conservative nationalism. However, such analysis does not insightfully refer to tendencies that are ancient or even old by historical standards. Instead, any connection with past rule has to be made with early modern Japan, from the start of the Meiji era (1868) to the start of the second world war.
Sweeping political, social and cultural changes in the last half of the 19th century opened up Japan to outside ideas, knowledge and technology. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 was actually a political revolution which swept away most elements of the old shogunate government and its prestige culture. New factions of elites capable of leadership and rule emerged during a time of great social unrest and change.
9. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/02/pork-barrel-boondoggle-in-ryukyu.html
03 February 2008
The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology: Pork barrel boondoggle in the Ryukyu Islands?
by Charles Jannuzi
Introduction
In December 2006, the Japanese government (at the ministry level) decided to put the construction and certification of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) on a privileged fast track. The OIST was conceived in the 1990s and put forward as an official proposal in June 2002 to help mark the 30th anniversary of the reversion of Okinawa from US control to become the 48th prefecture of Japan. Its proponents within the national government and in Okinawa had hoped that the proposed institute would open for teaching and research by September 2006--or earlier. That target has long been been missed, and efforts to speed up the process have been clouded by serious oversight issues involving the specification of research program, taught curriculum, and codes and regulations. Construction of the campus, currently in progress, could also cause considerable environmental destruction because of its location in what is now a communal forest near the coast.
10. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/02/japan-aims-for-world-class-universities.html
03 February 2008
Japan aims for 'world class' universities
by Charles Jannuzi
Introduction
The government of Japan is pushing for a consolidation and revitalization of the university system, formulating specific targets. Of the hundreds of universities here, 30 are supposed to emerge competitively as truly 'world-class' institutions. From amongst this group of 30, a very select group of five are supposed to attain a top 30 global ranking. And at the top of this super group of five, one of these must make it into the global top 10.
Here is a list of key feature articles that appeared here. These are articles that are for the most part exclusive of the ones that appeared under the 'TEFL Forum' title series.
But first, here are a few comments on some of the news and trends analyzed in the past two years of articles:
-Instead of getting more universities into the world's top 30, Japan's one top 20 university, Tokyo U., dropped out of the top 20.
-The new research university being founded in Okinawa has faltered, hitting budget limitations due to the ongoing fiscal crisis of the national government.
-The often-predicted demographic disaster awaiting Japan's large HE sector still awaits--offset by the fact that more and more young women are continuing onto four-year programs and graduate school.
-Meanwhile, the lines drawn across terms like 'university', 'college' and 'special training school/college' are being blurred: Two-year colleges have got into vocational programs and four-year programs in order to stay in business. It also seems that 'special training colleges' will hook up with universities and colleges because they need students, but their administrations have something the universities need as well: management skills in running vocationally relevant programs that lead to graduates getting certifications, qualifications, careers.
-And while the continuance rate from senior high to universities and colleges hasn't hit 60%, it is rising and for many students there are more and more ways to get into the programs of their choice (most students choose 2 or 3 institutions to apply for).
-And the top-rated universities like Toudai have more applicants than ever because many are hopeful that the demographic decline favors their chances to win the placement lottery. .
Links and introductory excerpts have been dug out from the archives for your convenience.
Original feature articles at JHEO:
1. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2009/12/profile-of-japans-top-university-u-of.html
16 December 2009
Profile of Japan's top university--U. of Tokyo (Toudai)
Recently Toudai dropped out of the THES-QS top 20 ranking of universities worldwide. I thought this would be a good time to run an alternative version of an earlier piece on the University of Tokyo.
---------------------------
Is University of Tokyo Japan's only world-class university?
Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui, Japan
It is unique and elite
When the university system of Japan is compared internationally, one institution is most often cited as Japan's best example of a 'world-class' university. This is, of course, the University of Tokyo (Toukyou Daigaku' or 'Toudai' for short). Toudai is perhaps most famous for graduating and networking elite bureaucrats and politicians, including prime ministers; however, the supposed lock on leadership in top government has waned over the past two decades. For example, this century's most popular prime minister of Japan, Junichiro Koizumi, and many of his advisors were graduates of the private elite Keio University.
2. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2009/04/end-of-japans-national-development-and.html
10 April 2009
The End of Japan's National Development State for Higher Education
Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui, Japan
Introduction
Japan's vast higher education system has around 5,000 institutions, with the count still growing. This includes a tertiary level of about 1,300 government-certified, degree-awarding colleges and universities. Seven hundred forty-five of these are designated as 'daigaku'--a term which refers to any institution that has received government sanction to award four-year degrees equivalent to a baccalaureate. These four-year universities along with junior and technical colleges enroll close to three million undergraduate students, including about 120,000 foreign nationals, the vast majority of whom are from China.
3. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/10/demographic-disaster-for-higher-ed-in.html
27 October 2008
Demographic Disaster for Higher Ed in Japan? Parts II-III
by Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui
Introduction
In early September 2006, I gave a presentation at a conference in Langkawi, Malaysia. The conference, which focused mostly on educational management issues in higher education, was hosted by the South East Asian Association for Institutional Research (SEAAIR) and the Open University of Malaysia. My talk was titled, "Japan's Tertiary Education System: Developments in the Koizumi Era of Reform".
In the resulting paper (which was published in the proceedings of the conference), I attempted to sum up twenty years of university reform with the following:
Those two prior decades of changes in tertiary education leading
up to the creation of the NUCs [Japan's 87 national universities
were re-chartered as 'national university corporations' in 2003-4]
comprised many profound developments....:
-the establishment of a handful of new research universities and
institutes, decision-making at which flows from a central
administration....
-the expansion of graduate program and their enrollments,
including American-style professional schools of business,
law, and accounting;
-growth in doctoral and post-doctoral programs....
-a steady increase in the number of international students
hosted, to over 120,000 annually, about 25% enrolled in
graduate schools;
-more public funding of the entire tertiary sector...with a
target of 1% of GDP;
-increased funding for research (including more basic
research) to compensate for its decline in private industry...
with a target of 7-8% of annual national budgets, and a
national goal approaching 3% of GDP for ALL scientific R&D
(with national government spending accounting for 1% of GDP);
-legislative and regulatory changes that allowed the national
universities to tie up with other entities to pursue research and
expand course offerings....
-parallel changes that allowed national university academics
to serve on the boards of NPOs and for-profit corporations;
-internal and external systems of evaluation, independent of
national government certification....
4. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/04/japans-tertiary-education-system.html
18 April 2008
Japan's Tertiary Education System: Developments in the Koizumi Era of Reform
Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui, Japan
With this first JPN HEO blog post of April 2008, I am using this forum to publish an article that was delivered as a paper at the SEAAIR conference in Langkawi, Malaysia, in September 2006. It will serve as something of a retrospective on happenings in higher education during the Koizumi years of 2000-6 and the preceding years that set up the reforms of what now could be called a political era for Japan.
News posts on the demographic crisis and reasons for the failure of English education will follow in the remaining days of April.
Japan's Tertiary Education System: Developments in the Koizumi Era of Reform
by Charles Jannuzi
Abstract
This paper will survey the major developments and changes that have taken place during the past decade in Japan's tertiary education system and put them into international (comparative) and historical perspectives. It also will attempt to assess critically the impact of major reforms on the national and public universities (and the response of the more numerous private universities to these reforms as well). For example, as of 1 April 2004, Japan's 87 national universities were 'denationalized' and incorporated into 'autonomous institutions'(or 'juridical persons') giving them, at least in theory, wider discretionary powers over personnel management, teaching and research assignments, program and curriculum development. The new status was supposed to result in more local autonomy within each institution over the allocation of money for their mandated missions in teaching, conveying public services to their regions, and conducting basic and applied research in science and technology. Have such top-down reforms proven effective, and have their effects matched the government's stated intentions? It is the author's contention that, not only are the reforms a classic case of reform over-reach, but that Japan's overbuilt university system will face demographic, financial and socio-cultural crises that the current Koizumi era of reform, now coming to its close, has utterly failed to address.
5. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/03/teaching-as-foreign-national-at.html
10 March 2008
Teaching as a Foreign National at Japanese Universities: Shifting Terms of Institutional Status, Employment, Work Conditions and Related Concerns
Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui, Japan
Introduction
The Japanese tertiary system consists of some 1250 national, public, and private four- and two-year institutions. At these degree-awarding universities and colleges, the terms 'foreign lecturer' or 'foreign instructor' refer to any non-Japanese personnel teaching below the status of professor. Most typically though the terms refer to full-time foreign language teachers who are 'native speakers' of the language they teach.
The vast majority of these foreign nationals teach English as a foreign language (EFL), but the number teaching other important languages, especially Asian ones, such as Mandarin Chinese, has also risen significantly during the past two decades. The non-Japanese teaching EFL in Japan are often assigned general English classes as part or all of their teaching duties. General English refers to service course English required as part of general education requirements of tertiary education.
6. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/03/from-university-research-centers-to.html
02 March 2008
From university research centers to international research hubs?
Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui, Japan
In the post-bubble Japan of the 1990s, the private sector's ability to finance scientific research and development went into stagnation and then decline. So from 1995 on the government has pursued an expanded role in the management and funding of scientific R&D at annual levels that equal or exceed 1% of GDP. In great part this has been through the dominant role of its super-ministry, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and its five-year 'Science and Technology Basic Plans'.
In order to increase public subsidy of scientific research-- while at the same time forcing research universities and research institutes to compete for funds--MEXT established a 'Centers of Excellence' program. However, this turned out to be a fairly diffuse program, paying for the construction of dozens of new research facilities all over the country at the former national universities and a handful of elite private ones. While this did a lot to help refurbish the appearance of the visibly deteriorated national universities, its actual boost to important scientific results is questionable.
7. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/02/demographic-disaster-for-higher-ed-in.html
10 February 2008
Demographic Disaster for Higher Education in Japan? Part I
by Charles Jannuzi
Introduction
This will be a three-part series for the Japan HEO Blog. This first installment will be a short introduction of the series and then follow with an analysis of Anglophone news coverage of Japan. This is, after all, an English-language blog on Japan.
Part two will consist of analysis of recent articles which appeared in the FT, New York Times, Guardian and Kyodo News Service which have covered the 'demographic disaster' that is supposed to be looming over higher education in Japan. Going straight to the strong points of the argument for a disaster scenario for HE in Japan, I will try to point out some of the flaws and gaps in the analysis.
The third and final part, which will most likely appear late in March 2008 (when the single correspondent of the Japan HEO Blog doesn't have to teach classes), I will put forth a different analysis in an attempt to answer the puzzling question, "Why, if high school graduate and university-eligible populations are in steady and unrecoverable decline, is Japan building still yet more universities?" Does someone in the HE sector here know something that everyone else doesn't? Or are they delusional?
8. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/02/extended-look-at-academic-freedom-in-he.html
03 February 2008
Academic freedom in Japan's higher education--a more in-depth look
by Charles Jannuzi
Introduction
Many attempts at analyzing the nature of government in post-war Japan tend to emphasize continuity with 'old' Japan and its conservative nationalism. However, such analysis does not insightfully refer to tendencies that are ancient or even old by historical standards. Instead, any connection with past rule has to be made with early modern Japan, from the start of the Meiji era (1868) to the start of the second world war.
Sweeping political, social and cultural changes in the last half of the 19th century opened up Japan to outside ideas, knowledge and technology. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 was actually a political revolution which swept away most elements of the old shogunate government and its prestige culture. New factions of elites capable of leadership and rule emerged during a time of great social unrest and change.
9. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/02/pork-barrel-boondoggle-in-ryukyu.html
03 February 2008
The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology: Pork barrel boondoggle in the Ryukyu Islands?
by Charles Jannuzi
Introduction
In December 2006, the Japanese government (at the ministry level) decided to put the construction and certification of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) on a privileged fast track. The OIST was conceived in the 1990s and put forward as an official proposal in June 2002 to help mark the 30th anniversary of the reversion of Okinawa from US control to become the 48th prefecture of Japan. Its proponents within the national government and in Okinawa had hoped that the proposed institute would open for teaching and research by September 2006--or earlier. That target has long been been missed, and efforts to speed up the process have been clouded by serious oversight issues involving the specification of research program, taught curriculum, and codes and regulations. Construction of the campus, currently in progress, could also cause considerable environmental destruction because of its location in what is now a communal forest near the coast.
10. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/02/japan-aims-for-world-class-universities.html
03 February 2008
Japan aims for 'world class' universities
by Charles Jannuzi
Introduction
The government of Japan is pushing for a consolidation and revitalization of the university system, formulating specific targets. Of the hundreds of universities here, 30 are supposed to emerge competitively as truly 'world-class' institutions. From amongst this group of 30, a very select group of five are supposed to attain a top 30 global ranking. And at the top of this super group of five, one of these must make it into the global top 10.
19 February 2010
Japan Higher Education Outlook Looks Back
Japan Higher Education Outlook has been in existence for over two years now. So it might be a good time to look back on some of the original content.
Here is a list of key feature articles that appeared here. These are articles that are for the most part exclusive of the ones that appeared under the 'TEFL Forum' title series.
But first, here are a few comments on some of the news and trends analyzed in the past two years of articles:
-Instead of getting more universities into the world's top 30, Japan's one top 20 university, Tokyo U., dropped out of the top 20.
-The new research university being founded in Okinawa has faltered, hitting budget limitations due to the ongoing fiscal crisis of the national government.
-The often-predicted demographic disaster awaiting Japan's large HE sector still awaits--offset by the fact that more and more young women are continuing onto four-year programs and graduate school.
-Meanwhile, the lines drawn across terms like 'university', 'college' and 'special training school/college' are being blurred: Two-year colleges have got into vocational programs and four-year programs in order to stay in business. It also seems that 'special training colleges' will hook up with universities and colleges because they need students, but their administrations have something the universities need as well: management skills in running vocationally relevant programs that lead to graduates getting certifications, qualifications, careers.
-And while the continuance rate from senior high to universities and colleges hasn't hit 60%, it is rising and for many students there are more and more ways to get into the programs of their choice (most students choose 2 or 3 institutions to apply for).
-And the top-rated universities like Toudai have more applicants than ever because many are hopeful that the demographic decline favors their chances to win the placement lottery. .
Links and introductory excerpts have been dug out from the archives for your convenience.
Original feature articles at JHEO:
1. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2009/12/profile-of-japans-top-university-u-of.html
16 December 2009
Profile of Japan's top university--U. of Tokyo (Toudai)
Recently Toudai dropped out of the THES-QS top 20 ranking of universities worldwide. I thought this would be a good time to run an alternative version of an earlier piece on the University of Tokyo.
---------------------------
Is University of Tokyo Japan's only world-class university?
Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui, Japan
It is unique and elite
When the university system of Japan is compared internationally, one institution is most often cited as Japan's best example of a 'world-class' university. This is, of course, the University of Tokyo (Toukyou Daigaku' or 'Toudai' for short). Toudai is perhaps most famous for graduating and networking elite bureaucrats and politicians, including prime ministers; however, the supposed lock on leadership in top government has waned over the past two decades. For example, this century's most popular prime minister of Japan, Junichiro Koizumi, and many of his advisors were graduates of the private elite Keio University.
2. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2009/04/end-of-japans-national-development-and.html
10 April 2009
The End of Japan's National Development State for Higher Education
Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui, Japan
Introduction
Japan's vast higher education system has around 5,000 institutions, with the count still growing. This includes a tertiary level of about 1,300 government-certified, degree-awarding colleges and universities. Seven hundred forty-five of these are designated as 'daigaku'--a term which refers to any institution that has received government sanction to award four-year degrees equivalent to a baccalaureate. These four-year universities along with junior and technical colleges enroll close to three million undergraduate students, including about 120,000 foreign nationals, the vast majority of whom are from China.
3. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/10/demographic-disaster-for-higher-ed-in.html
27 October 2008
Demographic Disaster for Higher Ed in Japan? Parts II-III
by Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui
Introduction
In early September 2006, I gave a presentation at a conference in Langkawi, Malaysia. The conference, which focused mostly on educational management issues in higher education, was hosted by the South East Asian Association for Institutional Research (SEAAIR) and the Open University of Malaysia. My talk was titled, "Japan's Tertiary Education System: Developments in the Koizumi Era of Reform".
In the resulting paper (which was published in the proceedings of the conference), I attempted to sum up twenty years of university reform with the following:
Those two prior decades of changes in tertiary education leading
up to the creation of the NUCs [Japan's 87 national universities
were re-chartered as 'national university corporations' in 2003-4]
comprised many profound developments....:
-the establishment of a handful of new research universities and
institutes, decision-making at which flows from a central
administration....
-the expansion of graduate program and their enrollments,
including American-style professional schools of business,
law, and accounting;
-growth in doctoral and post-doctoral programs....
-a steady increase in the number of international students
hosted, to over 120,000 annually, about 25% enrolled in
graduate schools;
-more public funding of the entire tertiary sector...with a
target of 1% of GDP;
-increased funding for research (including more basic
research) to compensate for its decline in private industry...
with a target of 7-8% of annual national budgets, and a
national goal approaching 3% of GDP for ALL scientific R&D
(with national government spending accounting for 1% of GDP);
-legislative and regulatory changes that allowed the national
universities to tie up with other entities to pursue research and
expand course offerings....
-parallel changes that allowed national university academics
to serve on the boards of NPOs and for-profit corporations;
-internal and external systems of evaluation, independent of
national government certification....
4. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/04/japans-tertiary-education-system.html
18 April 2008
Japan's Tertiary Education System: Developments in the Koizumi Era of Reform
Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui, Japan
With this first JPN HEO blog post of April 2008, I am using this forum to publish an article that was delivered as a paper at the SEAAIR conference in Langkawi, Malaysia, in September 2006. It will serve as something of a retrospective on happenings in higher education during the Koizumi years of 2000-6 and the preceding years that set up the reforms of what now could be called a political era for Japan.
News posts on the demographic crisis and reasons for the failure of English education will follow in the remaining days of April.
Japan's Tertiary Education System: Developments in the Koizumi Era of Reform
by Charles Jannuzi
Abstract
This paper will survey the major developments and changes that have taken place during the past decade in Japan's tertiary education system and put them into international (comparative) and historical perspectives. It also will attempt to assess critically the impact of major reforms on the national and public universities (and the response of the more numerous private universities to these reforms as well). For example, as of 1 April 2004, Japan's 87 national universities were 'denationalized' and incorporated into 'autonomous institutions'(or 'juridical persons') giving them, at least in theory, wider discretionary powers over personnel management, teaching and research assignments, program and curriculum development. The new status was supposed to result in more local autonomy within each institution over the allocation of money for their mandated missions in teaching, conveying public services to their regions, and conducting basic and applied research in science and technology. Have such top-down reforms proven effective, and have their effects matched the government's stated intentions? It is the author's contention that, not only are the reforms a classic case of reform over-reach, but that Japan's overbuilt university system will face demographic, financial and socio-cultural crises that the current Koizumi era of reform, now coming to its close, has utterly failed to address.
5. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/03/teaching-as-foreign-national-at.html
10 March 2008
Teaching as a Foreign National at Japanese Universities: Shifting Terms of Institutional Status, Employment, Work Conditions and Related Concerns
Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui, Japan
Introduction
The Japanese tertiary system consists of some 1250 national, public, and private four- and two-year institutions. At these degree-awarding universities and colleges, the terms 'foreign lecturer' or 'foreign instructor' refer to any non-Japanese personnel teaching below the status of professor. Most typically though the terms refer to full-time foreign language teachers who are 'native speakers' of the language they teach.
The vast majority of these foreign nationals teach English as a foreign language (EFL), but the number teaching other important languages, especially Asian ones, such as Mandarin Chinese, has also risen significantly during the past two decades. The non-Japanese teaching EFL in Japan are often assigned general English classes as part or all of their teaching duties. General English refers to service course English required as part of general education requirements of tertiary education.
6. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/03/from-university-research-centers-to.html
02 March 2008
From university research centers to international research hubs?
Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui, Japan
In the post-bubble Japan of the 1990s, the private sector's ability to finance scientific research and development went into stagnation and then decline. So from 1995 on the government has pursued an expanded role in the management and funding of scientific R&D at annual levels that equal or exceed 1% of GDP. In great part this has been through the dominant role of its super-ministry, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and its five-year 'Science and Technology Basic Plans'.
In order to increase public subsidy of scientific research-- while at the same time forcing research universities and research institutes to compete for funds--MEXT established a 'Centers of Excellence' program. However, this turned out to be a fairly diffuse program, paying for the construction of dozens of new research facilities all over the country at the former national universities and a handful of elite private ones. While this did a lot to help refurbish the appearance of the visibly deteriorated national universities, its actual boost to important scientific results is questionable.
7. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/02/demographic-disaster-for-higher-ed-in.html
10 February 2008
Demographic Disaster for Higher Education in Japan? Part I
by Charles Jannuzi
Introduction
This will be a three-part series for the Japan HEO Blog. This first installment will be a short introduction of the series and then follow with an analysis of Anglophone news coverage of Japan. This is, after all, an English-language blog on Japan.
Part two will consist of analysis of recent articles which appeared in the FT, New York Times, Guardian and Kyodo News Service which have covered the 'demographic disaster' that is supposed to be looming over higher education in Japan. Going straight to the strong points of the argument for a disaster scenario for HE in Japan, I will try to point out some of the flaws and gaps in the analysis.
The third and final part, which will most likely appear late in March 2008 (when the single correspondent of the Japan HEO Blog doesn't have to teach classes), I will put forth a different analysis in an attempt to answer the puzzling question, "Why, if high school graduate and university-eligible populations are in steady and unrecoverable decline, is Japan building still yet more universities?" Does someone in the HE sector here know something that everyone else doesn't? Or are they delusional?
8. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/02/extended-look-at-academic-freedom-in-he.html
03 February 2008
Academic freedom in Japan's higher education--a more in-depth look
by Charles Jannuzi
Introduction
Many attempts at analyzing the nature of government in post-war Japan tend to emphasize continuity with 'old' Japan and its conservative nationalism. However, such analysis does not insightfully refer to tendencies that are ancient or even old by historical standards. Instead, any connection with past rule has to be made with early modern Japan, from the start of the Meiji era (1868) to the start of the second world war.
Sweeping political, social and cultural changes in the last half of the 19th century opened up Japan to outside ideas, knowledge and technology. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 was actually a political revolution which swept away most elements of the old shogunate government and its prestige culture. New factions of elites capable of leadership and rule emerged during a time of great social unrest and change.
9. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/02/pork-barrel-boondoggle-in-ryukyu.html
03 February 2008
The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology: Pork barrel boondoggle in the Ryukyu Islands?
by Charles Jannuzi
Introduction
In December 2006, the Japanese government (at the ministry level) decided to put the construction and certification of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) on a privileged fast track. The OIST was conceived in the 1990s and put forward as an official proposal in June 2002 to help mark the 30th anniversary of the reversion of Okinawa from US control to become the 48th prefecture of Japan. Its proponents within the national government and in Okinawa had hoped that the proposed institute would open for teaching and research by September 2006--or earlier. That target has long been been missed, and efforts to speed up the process have been clouded by serious oversight issues involving the specification of research program, taught curriculum, and codes and regulations. Construction of the campus, currently in progress, could also cause considerable environmental destruction because of its location in what is now a communal forest near the coast.
10. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/02/japan-aims-for-world-class-universities.html
03 February 2008
Japan aims for 'world class' universities
by Charles Jannuzi
Introduction
The government of Japan is pushing for a consolidation and revitalization of the university system, formulating specific targets. Of the hundreds of universities here, 30 are supposed to emerge competitively as truly 'world-class' institutions. From amongst this group of 30, a very select group of five are supposed to attain a top 30 global ranking. And at the top of this super group of five, one of these must make it into the global top 10.
Here is a list of key feature articles that appeared here. These are articles that are for the most part exclusive of the ones that appeared under the 'TEFL Forum' title series.
But first, here are a few comments on some of the news and trends analyzed in the past two years of articles:
-Instead of getting more universities into the world's top 30, Japan's one top 20 university, Tokyo U., dropped out of the top 20.
-The new research university being founded in Okinawa has faltered, hitting budget limitations due to the ongoing fiscal crisis of the national government.
-The often-predicted demographic disaster awaiting Japan's large HE sector still awaits--offset by the fact that more and more young women are continuing onto four-year programs and graduate school.
-Meanwhile, the lines drawn across terms like 'university', 'college' and 'special training school/college' are being blurred: Two-year colleges have got into vocational programs and four-year programs in order to stay in business. It also seems that 'special training colleges' will hook up with universities and colleges because they need students, but their administrations have something the universities need as well: management skills in running vocationally relevant programs that lead to graduates getting certifications, qualifications, careers.
-And while the continuance rate from senior high to universities and colleges hasn't hit 60%, it is rising and for many students there are more and more ways to get into the programs of their choice (most students choose 2 or 3 institutions to apply for).
-And the top-rated universities like Toudai have more applicants than ever because many are hopeful that the demographic decline favors their chances to win the placement lottery. .
Links and introductory excerpts have been dug out from the archives for your convenience.
Original feature articles at JHEO:
1. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2009/12/profile-of-japans-top-university-u-of.html
16 December 2009
Profile of Japan's top university--U. of Tokyo (Toudai)
Recently Toudai dropped out of the THES-QS top 20 ranking of universities worldwide. I thought this would be a good time to run an alternative version of an earlier piece on the University of Tokyo.
---------------------------
Is University of Tokyo Japan's only world-class university?
Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui, Japan
It is unique and elite
When the university system of Japan is compared internationally, one institution is most often cited as Japan's best example of a 'world-class' university. This is, of course, the University of Tokyo (Toukyou Daigaku' or 'Toudai' for short). Toudai is perhaps most famous for graduating and networking elite bureaucrats and politicians, including prime ministers; however, the supposed lock on leadership in top government has waned over the past two decades. For example, this century's most popular prime minister of Japan, Junichiro Koizumi, and many of his advisors were graduates of the private elite Keio University.
2. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2009/04/end-of-japans-national-development-and.html
10 April 2009
The End of Japan's National Development State for Higher Education
Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui, Japan
Introduction
Japan's vast higher education system has around 5,000 institutions, with the count still growing. This includes a tertiary level of about 1,300 government-certified, degree-awarding colleges and universities. Seven hundred forty-five of these are designated as 'daigaku'--a term which refers to any institution that has received government sanction to award four-year degrees equivalent to a baccalaureate. These four-year universities along with junior and technical colleges enroll close to three million undergraduate students, including about 120,000 foreign nationals, the vast majority of whom are from China.
3. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/10/demographic-disaster-for-higher-ed-in.html
27 October 2008
Demographic Disaster for Higher Ed in Japan? Parts II-III
by Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui
Introduction
In early September 2006, I gave a presentation at a conference in Langkawi, Malaysia. The conference, which focused mostly on educational management issues in higher education, was hosted by the South East Asian Association for Institutional Research (SEAAIR) and the Open University of Malaysia. My talk was titled, "Japan's Tertiary Education System: Developments in the Koizumi Era of Reform".
In the resulting paper (which was published in the proceedings of the conference), I attempted to sum up twenty years of university reform with the following:
Those two prior decades of changes in tertiary education leading
up to the creation of the NUCs [Japan's 87 national universities
were re-chartered as 'national university corporations' in 2003-4]
comprised many profound developments....:
-the establishment of a handful of new research universities and
institutes, decision-making at which flows from a central
administration....
-the expansion of graduate program and their enrollments,
including American-style professional schools of business,
law, and accounting;
-growth in doctoral and post-doctoral programs....
-a steady increase in the number of international students
hosted, to over 120,000 annually, about 25% enrolled in
graduate schools;
-more public funding of the entire tertiary sector...with a
target of 1% of GDP;
-increased funding for research (including more basic
research) to compensate for its decline in private industry...
with a target of 7-8% of annual national budgets, and a
national goal approaching 3% of GDP for ALL scientific R&D
(with national government spending accounting for 1% of GDP);
-legislative and regulatory changes that allowed the national
universities to tie up with other entities to pursue research and
expand course offerings....
-parallel changes that allowed national university academics
to serve on the boards of NPOs and for-profit corporations;
-internal and external systems of evaluation, independent of
national government certification....
4. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/04/japans-tertiary-education-system.html
18 April 2008
Japan's Tertiary Education System: Developments in the Koizumi Era of Reform
Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui, Japan
With this first JPN HEO blog post of April 2008, I am using this forum to publish an article that was delivered as a paper at the SEAAIR conference in Langkawi, Malaysia, in September 2006. It will serve as something of a retrospective on happenings in higher education during the Koizumi years of 2000-6 and the preceding years that set up the reforms of what now could be called a political era for Japan.
News posts on the demographic crisis and reasons for the failure of English education will follow in the remaining days of April.
Japan's Tertiary Education System: Developments in the Koizumi Era of Reform
by Charles Jannuzi
Abstract
This paper will survey the major developments and changes that have taken place during the past decade in Japan's tertiary education system and put them into international (comparative) and historical perspectives. It also will attempt to assess critically the impact of major reforms on the national and public universities (and the response of the more numerous private universities to these reforms as well). For example, as of 1 April 2004, Japan's 87 national universities were 'denationalized' and incorporated into 'autonomous institutions'(or 'juridical persons') giving them, at least in theory, wider discretionary powers over personnel management, teaching and research assignments, program and curriculum development. The new status was supposed to result in more local autonomy within each institution over the allocation of money for their mandated missions in teaching, conveying public services to their regions, and conducting basic and applied research in science and technology. Have such top-down reforms proven effective, and have their effects matched the government's stated intentions? It is the author's contention that, not only are the reforms a classic case of reform over-reach, but that Japan's overbuilt university system will face demographic, financial and socio-cultural crises that the current Koizumi era of reform, now coming to its close, has utterly failed to address.
5. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/03/teaching-as-foreign-national-at.html
10 March 2008
Teaching as a Foreign National at Japanese Universities: Shifting Terms of Institutional Status, Employment, Work Conditions and Related Concerns
Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui, Japan
Introduction
The Japanese tertiary system consists of some 1250 national, public, and private four- and two-year institutions. At these degree-awarding universities and colleges, the terms 'foreign lecturer' or 'foreign instructor' refer to any non-Japanese personnel teaching below the status of professor. Most typically though the terms refer to full-time foreign language teachers who are 'native speakers' of the language they teach.
The vast majority of these foreign nationals teach English as a foreign language (EFL), but the number teaching other important languages, especially Asian ones, such as Mandarin Chinese, has also risen significantly during the past two decades. The non-Japanese teaching EFL in Japan are often assigned general English classes as part or all of their teaching duties. General English refers to service course English required as part of general education requirements of tertiary education.
6. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/03/from-university-research-centers-to.html
02 March 2008
From university research centers to international research hubs?
Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui, Japan
In the post-bubble Japan of the 1990s, the private sector's ability to finance scientific research and development went into stagnation and then decline. So from 1995 on the government has pursued an expanded role in the management and funding of scientific R&D at annual levels that equal or exceed 1% of GDP. In great part this has been through the dominant role of its super-ministry, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and its five-year 'Science and Technology Basic Plans'.
In order to increase public subsidy of scientific research-- while at the same time forcing research universities and research institutes to compete for funds--MEXT established a 'Centers of Excellence' program. However, this turned out to be a fairly diffuse program, paying for the construction of dozens of new research facilities all over the country at the former national universities and a handful of elite private ones. While this did a lot to help refurbish the appearance of the visibly deteriorated national universities, its actual boost to important scientific results is questionable.
7. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/02/demographic-disaster-for-higher-ed-in.html
10 February 2008
Demographic Disaster for Higher Education in Japan? Part I
by Charles Jannuzi
Introduction
This will be a three-part series for the Japan HEO Blog. This first installment will be a short introduction of the series and then follow with an analysis of Anglophone news coverage of Japan. This is, after all, an English-language blog on Japan.
Part two will consist of analysis of recent articles which appeared in the FT, New York Times, Guardian and Kyodo News Service which have covered the 'demographic disaster' that is supposed to be looming over higher education in Japan. Going straight to the strong points of the argument for a disaster scenario for HE in Japan, I will try to point out some of the flaws and gaps in the analysis.
The third and final part, which will most likely appear late in March 2008 (when the single correspondent of the Japan HEO Blog doesn't have to teach classes), I will put forth a different analysis in an attempt to answer the puzzling question, "Why, if high school graduate and university-eligible populations are in steady and unrecoverable decline, is Japan building still yet more universities?" Does someone in the HE sector here know something that everyone else doesn't? Or are they delusional?
8. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/02/extended-look-at-academic-freedom-in-he.html
03 February 2008
Academic freedom in Japan's higher education--a more in-depth look
by Charles Jannuzi
Introduction
Many attempts at analyzing the nature of government in post-war Japan tend to emphasize continuity with 'old' Japan and its conservative nationalism. However, such analysis does not insightfully refer to tendencies that are ancient or even old by historical standards. Instead, any connection with past rule has to be made with early modern Japan, from the start of the Meiji era (1868) to the start of the second world war.
Sweeping political, social and cultural changes in the last half of the 19th century opened up Japan to outside ideas, knowledge and technology. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 was actually a political revolution which swept away most elements of the old shogunate government and its prestige culture. New factions of elites capable of leadership and rule emerged during a time of great social unrest and change.
9. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/02/pork-barrel-boondoggle-in-ryukyu.html
03 February 2008
The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology: Pork barrel boondoggle in the Ryukyu Islands?
by Charles Jannuzi
Introduction
In December 2006, the Japanese government (at the ministry level) decided to put the construction and certification of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) on a privileged fast track. The OIST was conceived in the 1990s and put forward as an official proposal in June 2002 to help mark the 30th anniversary of the reversion of Okinawa from US control to become the 48th prefecture of Japan. Its proponents within the national government and in Okinawa had hoped that the proposed institute would open for teaching and research by September 2006--or earlier. That target has long been been missed, and efforts to speed up the process have been clouded by serious oversight issues involving the specification of research program, taught curriculum, and codes and regulations. Construction of the campus, currently in progress, could also cause considerable environmental destruction because of its location in what is now a communal forest near the coast.
10. http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/02/japan-aims-for-world-class-universities.html
03 February 2008
Japan aims for 'world class' universities
by Charles Jannuzi
Introduction
The government of Japan is pushing for a consolidation and revitalization of the university system, formulating specific targets. Of the hundreds of universities here, 30 are supposed to emerge competitively as truly 'world-class' institutions. From amongst this group of 30, a very select group of five are supposed to attain a top 30 global ranking. And at the top of this super group of five, one of these must make it into the global top 10.
03 April 2009
OECD Questions HE Rankings
Global tables of universities are all the rage, and we have featured some of the more popular ones (such as THES, ARWU ) here at Japan HEO Blog, while noting how they seem to be slanted towards Anglophone countries, especially the US and UK. Recently the OECD has been critical of such rankings--criticizing their arbitrary and superficial aspects but especially warning against the weight given to and the use people put to the rankings.
What the OECD is really moving towards, though, is placing the organization as a leader in global evaluation and accreditation of higher education worldwide. In which case, as is so often the case with elite organizations run by and for elites, the issue will still be: who evaluates the evaluators and their methods?
The OECD's emphasis on 'learning outcomes' appeals strongly to common sense--to anyone who has experienced higher education as a student, a researcher, a teacher or an administrator. However, translating such concepts across so many individual country's and regional blocs and their higher education systems is going to be a lot easier to conceive than to achieve. So the OECD has set for itself a very ambitious learning outcome indeed.
Here is an OECD reading list, with links and some indicative excerpts.
http://www.oecdobserver.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/2768/Breaking_ranks.html
excerpt:
>>The OECD Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO) study aims at determining whether it is possible to make meaningful statements about the education provided in universities in different countries, taking into account different “strands” of competence: skill in a chosen discipline, and generic skills such as critical thinking or the ability to apply knowledge practically. If successful, AHELO will provide institutions with analysis to help them improve their own performance, and will provide data that will help students assess the suitability of the institution for their own needs.<<
http://www.oecd.org/document/22/0,3343,en_2649_35961291_40624662_1_1_1_1,00.html
excerpt:
>>The OECD Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO) is a ground-breaking initiative to assess learning outcomes on an international scale by creating measures that would be valid for all cultures and languages. Between ten and thirty-thousand higher education students in over ten different countries will take part in a feasibility study to determine the bounds of this ambitious project, with an eye to the possible creation of a full-scale AHELO upon its completion.<<
http://www.oecd.org/document/41/0,3343,en_2649_35961291_42295209_1_1_1_1,00.html
excerpt:
>>The factors affecting higher education are woven so tightly together that they must first be teased apart before an accurate assessment can be made. The AHELO feasibility study thus explores four complementary strands....Generic Skills Strand....Discipline-specific Strands in Engineering and Economics....Learning in context....The Value-Added Strand....<<
What the OECD is really moving towards, though, is placing the organization as a leader in global evaluation and accreditation of higher education worldwide. In which case, as is so often the case with elite organizations run by and for elites, the issue will still be: who evaluates the evaluators and their methods?
The OECD's emphasis on 'learning outcomes' appeals strongly to common sense--to anyone who has experienced higher education as a student, a researcher, a teacher or an administrator. However, translating such concepts across so many individual country's and regional blocs and their higher education systems is going to be a lot easier to conceive than to achieve. So the OECD has set for itself a very ambitious learning outcome indeed.
Here is an OECD reading list, with links and some indicative excerpts.
http://www.oecdobserver.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/2768/Breaking_ranks.html
excerpt:
>>The OECD Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO) study aims at determining whether it is possible to make meaningful statements about the education provided in universities in different countries, taking into account different “strands” of competence: skill in a chosen discipline, and generic skills such as critical thinking or the ability to apply knowledge practically. If successful, AHELO will provide institutions with analysis to help them improve their own performance, and will provide data that will help students assess the suitability of the institution for their own needs.<<
http://www.oecd.org/document/22/0,3343,en_2649_35961291_40624662_1_1_1_1,00.html
excerpt:
>>The OECD Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO) is a ground-breaking initiative to assess learning outcomes on an international scale by creating measures that would be valid for all cultures and languages. Between ten and thirty-thousand higher education students in over ten different countries will take part in a feasibility study to determine the bounds of this ambitious project, with an eye to the possible creation of a full-scale AHELO upon its completion.<<
http://www.oecd.org/document/41/0,3343,en_2649_35961291_42295209_1_1_1_1,00.html
excerpt:
>>The factors affecting higher education are woven so tightly together that they must first be teased apart before an accurate assessment can be made. The AHELO feasibility study thus explores four complementary strands....Generic Skills Strand....Discipline-specific Strands in Engineering and Economics....Learning in context....The Value-Added Strand....<<
13 March 2009
2008 Shanghai Jiao Tong University ARWU Global Rankings
I have extracted the Japanese universities' entries. The results are very similar to the THES rankings I featured late last year at the JHEO Blog.
http://www.arwu.org/rank2008/EN2008.htm
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
http://www.arwu.org/rank2008/EN2008.htm
Top 100
http://www.arwu.org/rank2008/ARWU2008_A(EN).htm
19 Tokyo Univ Asia/Pac 1 Japan 1 32.2 14.1 43.1 51.9 83.3 35 46.4
23 Kyoto Univ Asia/Pac 2 Japan 2 35.4 33.4 38.6 35.8 70.6 31.5 43.5
68 Osaka Univ Asia/Pac 5 Japan 3 11.2 0 26.3 28.2 63.6 28.7 28.3
79 Tohoku Univ Asia/Pac 7 Japan 4 16.8 0 21.9 23.2 63.9 28.9 27.1
Top 100 Asia Pacific universities
http://www.arwu.org/rank2008/ARWU2008_A(EN).htm
1 Tokyo Univ 19 Japan 1
2 Kyoto Univ 23 Japan 2
5 Osaka Univ 68 Japan 3
7 Tohoku Univ 79 Japan 4
9-16 Kyushu Univ 101-151 Japan 5-7
9-16 Nagoya Univ 101-151 Japan 5-7
9-16 Tokyo Inst Tech 101-151 Japan 5-7
17-22 Hokkaido Univ 152-200 Japan 8-9
17-22 Tsukuba Univ 152-200 Japan 8-9
23-41 Hiroshima Univ 201-302 Japan 10-12
23-41 Keio Univ 201-302 Japan 10-12
23-41 Kobe Univ 201-302 Japan 10-12
42-68 Kanazawa Univ 303-401 Japan 13-18
42-68 Niigata Univ 303-401 Japan 13-18
42-68 Okayama Univ 303-401 Japan 13-18
42-68 Tokyo Med & Dental Univ 303-401 Japan 13-18
42-68 Waseda Univ 303-401 Japan 13-18
42-68 Yamaguchi Univ 303-401 Japan 13-18
69-100 Ehime Univ 402-503 Japan 19-31
69-100 Gifu Univ 402-503 Japan 19-31
69-100 Gunma Univ 402-503 Japan 19-31
69-100 Kagoshima Univ 402-503 Japan 19-31
69-100 Nagasaki Univ 402-503 Japan 19-31
69-100 Nara Inst Sci & Tech 402-503 Japan 19-31
69-100 Nihon Univ 402-503 Japan 19-31
69-100 Osaka City Univ 402-503 Japan 19-31
69-100 Osaka Prefecture Univ 402-503 Japan 19-31
69-100 Tokyo Metropolitan Univ 402-503 Japan 19-31
69-100 Tokyo Univ Agr & Tech 402-503 Japan 19-31
http://www.arwu.org/rank2008/EN2008.htm
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
http://www.arwu.org/rank2008/EN2008.htm
Top 100
http://www.arwu.org/rank2008/ARWU2008_A(EN).htm
19 Tokyo Univ Asia/Pac 1 Japan 1 32.2 14.1 43.1 51.9 83.3 35 46.4
23 Kyoto Univ Asia/Pac 2 Japan 2 35.4 33.4 38.6 35.8 70.6 31.5 43.5
68 Osaka Univ Asia/Pac 5 Japan 3 11.2 0 26.3 28.2 63.6 28.7 28.3
79 Tohoku Univ Asia/Pac 7 Japan 4 16.8 0 21.9 23.2 63.9 28.9 27.1
Top 100 Asia Pacific universities
http://www.arwu.org/rank2008/ARWU2008_A(EN).htm
1 Tokyo Univ 19 Japan 1
2 Kyoto Univ 23 Japan 2
5 Osaka Univ 68 Japan 3
7 Tohoku Univ 79 Japan 4
9-16 Kyushu Univ 101-151 Japan 5-7
9-16 Nagoya Univ 101-151 Japan 5-7
9-16 Tokyo Inst Tech 101-151 Japan 5-7
17-22 Hokkaido Univ 152-200 Japan 8-9
17-22 Tsukuba Univ 152-200 Japan 8-9
23-41 Hiroshima Univ 201-302 Japan 10-12
23-41 Keio Univ 201-302 Japan 10-12
23-41 Kobe Univ 201-302 Japan 10-12
42-68 Kanazawa Univ 303-401 Japan 13-18
42-68 Niigata Univ 303-401 Japan 13-18
42-68 Okayama Univ 303-401 Japan 13-18
42-68 Tokyo Med & Dental Univ 303-401 Japan 13-18
42-68 Waseda Univ 303-401 Japan 13-18
42-68 Yamaguchi Univ 303-401 Japan 13-18
69-100 Ehime Univ 402-503 Japan 19-31
69-100 Gifu Univ 402-503 Japan 19-31
69-100 Gunma Univ 402-503 Japan 19-31
69-100 Kagoshima Univ 402-503 Japan 19-31
69-100 Nagasaki Univ 402-503 Japan 19-31
69-100 Nara Inst Sci & Tech 402-503 Japan 19-31
69-100 Nihon Univ 402-503 Japan 19-31
69-100 Osaka City Univ 402-503 Japan 19-31
69-100 Osaka Prefecture Univ 402-503 Japan 19-31
69-100 Tokyo Metropolitan Univ 402-503 Japan 19-31
69-100 Tokyo Univ Agr & Tech 402-503 Japan 19-31
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Back to top
Click on logo to go back to top page.