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PART Issues and Perspectives ofHigher Education

Educational and research activities at universities are carried out on the basis of the spontaneous will of university people. It is necessary for universities to attempt to ensure the qualitative development of their educational and research activities, while taking account of such elements as: the diverse demands of the public with regard to universities; the progress of highly advanced scientific research; and the growth of more and more interdisciplinary research. To this end, the government needs to make the institutional framework more general and broader so that individual universities may develop their educational and research activities in diverse manners with their autonomous and independent efforts.

Meanwhile, it has been pointed out that the present management of universities in Japan is art to be exclusive, that in appointing its staff each university is not so willing to seek proper candidates from among people outside of the university and that, as teachers are apt to rest comfortably on their own tenure, their educational and research activities tend to be stagnant. From the same angle, the National Council on Educational Reform recommended with regard to university management that in each university an advisory organ be established and utilized in which people outside the university participate, and that a system be explored under which each university may introduce a definite term of office for its teaching staff at it sown discretion. These issues still remain to be studied by the government in the future.

Apart from these tasks, it is urgently required that a system be established which may facilitate each university's constant improvement in its activities on it sown responsibility. More specifically, each university needs to establish a system of self-monitoring and self-evaluation.

In addition, it is necessary for the government to take financial measures, whenever necessary, to support the autonomous effort of each university towards the vitalization of its educational and research activities.