Two decades have passed since Japan incorporated its national universities into semi-public administrative bodies in 2004.
The measure was put into practice to revitalize education and research. That also matched requirements of a trend of the time for administrative and fiscal reforms.
In subsequent years, however, government policy has worsened the academic and research environment at many universities, in a far cry from the ideal vision that was initially embraced.
Japan’s research capabilities have dropped and front-line staff at national universities are entrapped in a sense of helplessness.
The government should draw on this occasion to critically review the failures made so far and retool its policy.
The Asahi Shimbun recently conducted a survey of all 86 presidents of Japan’s national universities and asked them how they assess the current situation as compared to 20 years ago.
Nearly 70 percent of the 79 respondents said they believe that things have taken a turn for the worse.
Few of the university presidents were critical of the incorporation of national universities itself, which included such measures as liberalization of management and personnel affairs.
Progress has also been made on cooperating with local communities and making contributions to them, as well as providing assistance for students.
But the majority of the national university presidents pointed out negative effects of the government policy of reducing operating subsidies, which cover personnel, fuel and lighting expenses, and requiring universities to earn the bulk of the research expenses through competition.
The national universities have coped with the subsidy cuts by curbing their personnel expenses.
They have continually curtailed the number of teaching staff members they employ for an indefinite period, and more than 30 percent of all teaching staff at national universities, most typically younger people, now have fixed employment terms.
Competitive funds are typically available for short-term projects.
A number of teaching staff have therefore gravitated toward research subjects that allow them to readily achieve results and have had to do paperwork to file applications at the cost of time they could have spent doing research.
All that has taken a toll on research capabilities. Japan’s world ranking in terms of the number of highly cited papers, for example, has fallen from fourth place in 2004 to 13th place, the worst among the Group of Seven nations.
The government should squarely face up to the failures of its policy that excessively encourages immediate competition and could thereby sap the energy that should be devoted to more essential scholarship.
There are also concerns about the impact of the worsening environment on front-line staff workers.
Some 40 percent of the university presidents reported in the survey that they believe that their teaching and other staff members are becoming less motivated.
The Asahi Shimbun also conducted a survey, on the same occasion, of members of the teaching and other staff at national universities, who, as it turned out, were taking the situation even more seriously.
The government and business circles have hoped that national universities will create innovations that will help revitalize the economy, and they have pressed ahead with a “selection and concentration” policy for that purpose.
Different parties have pointed out that the policy has had negative effects, but the government has yet to show a willingness to review the setup.
The government has, on the contrary, even kick-started a new “Universities for International Research Excellence” system, which involves intensively distributing tens of billions of yen (hundreds of millions of dollars) a year to each of a handful of universities.
It is wrong to believe simplistically that results will be achieved if only competition is encouraged.
Free imagination, diversity and the availability of a far-reaching base are indispensable for breakthrough research achievements.
Assistance should be provided in the long term not so much to prestigious universities and applied research as to provincial universities, which are the growing grounds of young researchers, and to basic research.
Some national universities are even embracing a sense of alarm about their possible closure from financial difficulties due to the subsidy cuts and the falling birthrates.
The government should review its policy on national universities before these valuable education and research bases across the nation can fall into an irreparable situation.
--The Asahi Shimbun, April 10
EDITORIAL: Review needed of failed policy to revitalize Japan’s universities
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10.04.2024
Two decades have passed since Japan incorporated its national universities into semi-public administrative bodies in 2004.
The measure was put into practice to revitalize education and research. That also matched requirements of a trend of the time for administrative and fiscal reforms.
In subsequent years, however, government policy has worsened the academic and research environment at many universities, in a far cry from the ideal vision that was initially embraced.
Japan’s research capabilities have dropped and front-line staff at national universities are entrapped in a sense of helplessness.
The government should draw on this occasion to critically review the failures made so far and retool its policy.
The Asahi Shimbun recently conducted a survey of all 86 presidents of Japan’s national universities and asked them how they assess the current situation as compared to 20 years ago.
Nearly 70 percent of the 79 respondents said they believe that things have taken a turn for the worse.
Few of the university presidents were critical of the incorporation of national universities itself, which included such measures as liberalization........
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