|
|
 |
||
|
Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > JAPAMESE GOVERNMENT POLICIES IN EDUCATION,SCIENCE AND CULTURE 1990 > PART Chapter1 2 2 |
|
Issues and Perspectives ofHigher Education
New-system universities were started under the School Education Law, which prescribed that "a university shall be aimed at conducting teaching and research in depth in specialized arts and sciences. as well as providing students with broad knowledge. as a center of learning. and thus at helping students develop their intellectual, moral and practical abilities." (Article 52.) As pointed out by the United States Education Mission to Japan in its first report, in old-system institutions of higher education, there was "too little opportunity for general education and too narrow a specialization." and before the war there was "too wide a gap between the world of higher learning occupied by scholars and the unidentified millions of the Japanese people." New-system institutions of higher education came into existence with the aim of rectifying these shortcomings of the old-system institutions. They were intended to conduct scientific research and to develop professional workers on the basis of a broad general education.
In setting up new system universities the Government was confronted with a number of problems to be solved with regard to national universities. In view of the criticism that national universities were too much concentrated in large cities, hindering the principle of equal educational opportunity, the Ministry of Education. Science and Culture set forth 11 principles for the establishment of national universities. The principles included the following: that all national institutions located in a particular prefecture should be merged into a single university and that no faculties or branch campuses of a national university in a particular prefecture should be located in any other prefecture. Quite a lot of opinions and wishes conflicting with these principles were expressed by many administrators and professors at national universities. For example, some of them wished to see that an old-system university located in a prefecture be merged with a higher school located in another prefecture, and some others insisted that a particular college be promoted to a university by itself. Some others were opposed to the merging of a college with a normal school. Based on some solutions to these difficult problems, a Law for the Establishment of National Schools was enacted in May 1949, and 69new-system national universities began operation.
The most critical problem with which private institutions were confronted was the financial one. Many of these institutions which were located in large cities had suffered tremendous war damages. The rapid progress of inflation had made the economic conditions of private institutions so serious as to hinder their very survival, and made their business management extremely difficult. As emergency measures, the Ministry of Education. Science and Culture provided these institutions with long-term loans for the reconstruction of war damaged buildings, and prefectural governments gave them subsidies or other forms of assistance. Nevertheless, private universities continued to suffer from financial contingencies for many years.
Apart from these financial problems, private institutions faced various reform issues. including: how to ensure their development comparable to that of national and local public institutions, and how to enhance their own public nature. While securing their own autonomy.
The enactment of the School Education Law and other statutes led to the establishment of a national system of higher education involving national, local public and private institutions. After that a Private School Law was enacted with the aim of ensuring both the autonomy and the public nature of private institutions. This law contained three major characteristics: firstly, it paid high regard to the autonomy of private institutions; secondly, with a view to securing the public nature of private institutions, the law created a new category of public corporation; a corporation for the purpose of founding and operating one or more educational institutions; and thirdly, it authorized the national and local governments to grant financial subsidies to private institutions in such ways as are not contradictory to the provisions of Article 89 of the Constitution of Japan, which prohibited spending public money on private enterprises "not under the control of the public authority.
"New-system universities, which had started in the post-war devastation and with insufficient physical and human resources, numbered 180 institutions (70 national. 18 local public and 92 private) in March 1950.
while the University Order of 1918 included no provisions regarding the aim of the graduate school, the School Education Law of 1947 clearly defined the aim as "to be engaged in teaching and research in the theory and application of sciences, and in pursuing sciences deeply, and thus to contribute to cultural development." Under this law the graduate school was officially given its own distinctive role and mission. It became more than a mere extension of undergraduate departments. In1950 the first new system graduate schools were approved in four private universities, and in 1953 additional graduate schools were set up in some national and local public universities. Old-system graduate schools continued to exist transitionally. until March 1962.
Along with the reform in the graduate school system, the system of academic degrees was also drastically changed. Unlike under the old system, new academic degrees were to be awarded by individual universities without any arrival by the Minister of Education, Science and Culture. Further, the master's degree was introduced in addition to the doctor's degree.
One of the major issues during the process of transition to the new university system was how to deal with institutions below university standards.
When o1d system institutions of higher education were transformed into new-system universities. the majority of colleges wished to transform themselves into four-year universities. About 50 of them, however, were not approved to become universities because of inadequate teaching staff, physical facilities, equipment and other resources. There were also some colleges which did not wish to become four-year universities.
Against this background, in May 1949 the government partially amended the School Education Law to tentatively create two-year or three-year institutions which were to be called "junior colleges." In 1950 149 junior colleges were approved as the first junior colleges. Seventeen of them were local public institutions and the other 132 were private ones.
| Back to Top | MEXT HOME |