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Japanese flagship universities at a crossroads

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Abstract

The increasing pace and scope of global structural change has left Japanese flagship universities at a crossroads. Reflecting upon historical trends, current policy changes and respective institutional strategies for global marketing among Japanese top research universities, the author discusses possible future directions for these institutions and how key decisions may be influenced by selected national policies. By taking a more active role in building flagship universities and making use of higher education for social and economic development, the Japanese government has already taken concrete measures to keep apace with higher education policies of neighboring Asian countries. However, in the author’s view, whether or not Japan can truly develop and maintain world-class universities ultimately depends on an overall improvement in the status of East Asian higher education.

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Acknowledgements

This paper is a product supported by a JSPS Grant in Aid Project (A)(2), Developing Evaluation Criteria to assess the Internationalization of Universities, directed by Norio Furushiro, Osaka University. This paper was originally written for a comparative project on ‘flagship universities’ led by Philip Altbach and Jorge Balan. I hereby express my sincere thanks to Altbach, Balan and Fujishiro and other colleagues in the projects for comments and encouragements.

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  1. National Institution for Academic Degrees and University Evaluation, 1-29-1, Gakuen-Nishi, Kodaira, Tokyo , 187-8587 , Japan

    Akiyoshi Yonezawa

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  1. Akiyoshi Yonezawa
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Correspondence to Akiyoshi Yonezawa.

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Yonezawa, A. Japanese flagship universities at a crossroads. High Educ 54, 483–499 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-006-9028-2

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