Higher education in Japan: A view from outside

Abstract

Higher education in Japan is often characterized in comparativestudies as considerably expanded, highly stratified, overshadowed bycompetition for admission, not very demanding for the masses ofundergraduate students, important in awarding credentials, but without closelinks between the subjects of study and subsequent professional tasks. Thesecharacteristics have been pointed out so frequently in the past that thequestion has to be raised whether this picture is too old-fashioned and toomuch of a stereotype. This article echoes the previous articles of thisspecial issue. The themes addressed by Japanese authors are partlysummarized, partly supplemented and partly challenged by a foreign observer.Developments and notably changes in the early 1990s are analyzed in respectto the quantitative-structural pattern of the Japanese higher educationssystem; governance and financing; access and admissions; learning, teachingand research; links between educational attainment, credentials and career;curricula, competences and graduate employment, and finally graduateeducation. The author draws the conclusion that efforts directed towardsreforming higher education have been spread over many issues, among themmany academic issues such as new curricular approaches, rather thanfocussing on single major issues such as steering, governance and evaluationas one could observe in Europe during the last ten years or so. Changingsocietal conditions, for example growing employment problems, the increaseof specialists' career and internationalization currently stimulate areconsideration of higher education policies in various respects.