Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > Japanese Government Policies in Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology 2001 >Chapter5.2(2)

For the objective evaluation of educational and research activities of universities, third-party evaluation is important. For this purpose, the National Institution for Academic Degrees (NIAD) was reorganized in April 2000 as an organization for implementing third-party evaluation from an objective standpoint. This institution conducts three types of evaluation: university-wide thematic evaluation (evaluation related to institutional conduct such as "general education" and "contribution to society by extending educational services"); evaluation of educational activities in each academic field; and evaluation of research activities in each academic field. Those concerned with universities and businesses as well as experts from a wide range of social, economic and cultural spheres take part in the evaluation. The NIAD has implemented a phase-in evaluation program in that the number of fields and institutions toward a full-fledged evaluation program in FY2003. The universities get feedback of the results from the NIAD for making use of them to improve their educational and research activities. Furthermore, the results are made public to society in a comprehensible manner, so that students and industry can refer to them when choosing universities.