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A statistical study of transferral and promotion mechanisms relating to the appointment of professors at Japanese national universities based on cross tabulation and log-linear model analysis

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Abstract

The aim of this study is to use the Japanese university employee list (published by Kojunsha) to compile a database of teacher transferrals in higher education (HM-DB) at 9 points in time over the 21-year period from 1988 to 2008, and then to use this database to assess and analyze the status of national university teachers immediately before and after assuming office as professors in order to gain some understanding of the transferral mechanisms of teachers at Japan’s national universities. From the results of cross-tabulation analysis, it has become clear that a growing proportion of transfers involving the appointment of professors involve movements between very similar universities (transferral blocking phenomenon), and that there is a growing tendency for professorial appointments to involve a migration from universities with a lower share of published research papers to universities with a higher share. Also, by constructing a log-linear model and performing a residual analysis, we have found that although these trends are clearly apparent, they do not yet have a great deal of influence.

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Acknowledgments

Many people provided the author with assistance in the course of this study. The author is indebted to Professor Ryuei Nishii of Kyushu University Faculty of Mathematics (visiting researcher, National Institute of Science and Technology Policy) for his extensive help in carrying out this study. The author is also grateful to lead researcher Terutaka Kuwahara and 2nd Research Group Chief Director Akiya Nagata for their valuable opinions. Thanks are also due to the editor and an anonymous reviewer for their careful reading and helpful comments.

This study would not have been possible without the library of Japanese university employee lists that were supplied to the author by Kojunsha, to whom the author is eternally grateful. This study was assisted by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from MEXT (19710139). Note that the author is responsible for the claims made in this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. 2nd Theory-Oriented Research Group, National Institute of Science and Technology Policy (NISTEP), Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), 3-2-2, Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 100-0013, Japan

    Moritaka Hosotsubo

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  1. Moritaka Hosotsubo
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Correspondence to Moritaka Hosotsubo.

Appendices

Appendix 1: Classification of Japanese national universities

  • G1: First group (share of research papers 5% and more; 4 universities):

  • Tohoku Univ., Tokyo Univ., Osaka Univ. (including Osaka Univ. of Foreign Studies), Kyoto Univ.

  • G2: Second group (share of research papers 1–5%, 10 universities):

  • Tokyo Institute of Technology, Nagoya Univ., Hokkaido Univ., Kyushu Univ. (including the Kyushu Institute of Design), Tsukuba Univ. (including the Univ. of Library and Information Science), Chiba Univ., Kobe Univ. (including Kobe Univ. of Mercantile Marine), Hiroshima Univ., Kanazawa Univ., Okayama Univ.

  • G3: Third group (share of research papers 0.5–1%, 17 universities):

  • Nagoya Institute of Technology, Tokyo Univ. of Agriculture, Shizuoka Univ., Mie Univ., Shinshu Univ., Toyama Univ. (including Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical Univ.), Yamaguchi Univ., Gifu Univ., Niigata Univ., Tokyo Medical and Dental Univ., Yokohama National Univ., Kumamoto Univ., Gunma Univ., Nagasaki Univ., Yamagata Univ., Ehime Univ., Kagoshima Univ.

  • G4: Fourth group (share of research papers less than 0.5%, 55 universities):

  • Ochanomizu Univ., Aichi Univ. of Education, Asahikawa Medical College, Hitotsubashi Univ., Ibaraki Univ., Utsunomiya Univ., Iwate Univ., Miyazaki Univ. (including Miyazaki Medical College), Miyagi Univ. of Education, Kyoto Univ. of Education, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Hirosaki Univ., Kagawa Univ. (including Kagawa Medical Univ.), Kochi Univ. (including Kochi Medical School), Saga Univ. (including Saga Medical School), Saitama Univ., Yamanashi Univ. (including Yamanashi Medical Univ.), Shiga Univ. of Medical Science, Shiga Univ., Kanoya Sports Univ., Muroran Institute of Technology, Akita Univ., Otaru Univ. of Commerce, Joetsu Univ. of Education, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Graduate Univ. for Advanced Studies, Obihiro Univ. of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Osaka Kyoiku Univ., Oita Univ. (including Oita Medical Univ.), Tsukuba Univ. of Technology (including the Tsukuba College of Technology), Nagaoka Univ. of Technology, Tottori Univ., Univ. of Electro-Communications, Shimane Univ. (including Shimane Medical Univ.), Tokyo Univ. of Marine Science and Technology (including Tokyo Univ. of Mercantile Marine Fisheries), Tokyo Univ. of Foreign Studies, Tokyo Gakugei Univ., Tokyo Univ. of the Arts, Univ. of Tokushima, Nara Univ. of Education, Nara Women’s Univ., Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Hamamatsu Univ. School of Medicine, Fukui Univ. (including Fukui Medical School), Fukuoka Univ. of Education, Fukushima Univ., Hyogo Univ., Toyohashi Univ. of Technology, Hokkaido Univ. of Education, Kitami Institute of Technology, and Technology, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Naruto Univ. of Education, Ryukyu Univ., Wakayama Univ.

Appendix 2

See Table 12.

Table 12 Significance test results of the cross tables in this research
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Hosotsubo, M. A statistical study of transferral and promotion mechanisms relating to the appointment of professors at Japanese national universities based on cross tabulation and log-linear model analysis. Scientometrics 86, 405–430 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-010-0276-7

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Keywords

Mathematical subject classification (2000)

JEL classification

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