Full Text
MEXT
MEXT
Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > FY2003 White Paper on Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology >Part1 Reference Higher Education Reform Q&A? Question2

PREVIOUS   NEXT
Part 1   Higher Education to Support a Knowledge-Based Society Full of Creative Vitality - New Developments in Higher Education Reform
   Reference Higher Education Reform Q&A?
   Question2


Recently, the phrase "evaluate university" is often heard, but what is its purpose? Who will evaluate the educational and research activities of universities and in what ways? Also, will the views of students currently attending the university actually be incorporated in the evaluations?

Answer

University evaluation can be divided roughly into three areas according to the following objectives: 1) evaluation for collecting and disclosing information towards the qualitative improvement of universities (self-monitoring and self-evaluation, the certified evaluation system that starts from FY2004, etc.); 2) evaluation for determining allocations of public resources and policy decisions (the evaluation system based on the national university corporation system, etc.); and 3) evaluation for providing various kinds of information to people interested in universities (information from privately-operated preparatory classes for taking entrance examinations, private publishing companies, etc.).

Regarding 1), "self-monitoring and self-evaluation" measures have been carried out, wherein each university, in light of its educational and research principles and targets, monitors and evaluates the state of its own educational and research activities, and based on this, endeavors to improve its education and research.

From FY2004, in addition to this self-monitoring and self-evaluation, a system in which all national, public and private universities are regularly evaluated by evaluation institutions that have been certified by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (certified evaluation institutions) will be introduced. The certified evaluation institutions conduct evaluations in accordance with university evaluation standards that they have established themselves, notify the university regarding the evaluation results, and disclose them to society at large. Thanks to this process, universities are evaluated by society and work to improve themselves based on evaluation results, and contribution is made to improve the quality of education and research.

Regarding 2), in recent years, evaluation results have been reflected in resource distribution in diverse ways. However, in the national university corporation system, which will start from April 2004, a system that evaluates the performances of national university corporations will be introduced. In this system, evaluation of performances over the mid-term objective period (six years) of national university corporations will be implemented by the National University Corporation Evaluation Committee installed at MEXT. These evaluation results are scheduled to be reflected in resource distribution for national university corporations.

As for 3), in recent years, privately-operated preparatory classes for taking entrance examinations, private publishing companies and other parties have been carrying out evaluations of universities from various standpoints for the purpose of providing information.

Since there are various types of objectives for university evaluations as above, it is also necessary to make specific evaluation methods suitable to the objectives.

Therefore, incorporating the viewpoints of students receiving education and other university users into the items being evaluated is extremely important regarding both self-monitoring and self-evaluation, and certified evaluation in 1), and the evaluation of national university corporations in 2). From now on, evaluation measures that incorporate diverse standpoints will be expected.


PREVIOUS   NEXT
(C)COPYRIGHT Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology

Back To Top   MEXT HOME