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PART Issues and Perspectives ofHigher Education

The American tradition of campus life, in which students spent their life in residential dormitories at least until the end of the undergraduate course, underwent rapid changes after the student unrest in the 1960's. The most notable and typical change was that in loco parentis policies by college authorities declined.

The decline in these policies led to increased participation by students, as high regard was paid to the self-governing function of student groups. However, in the 197O's when a great change took place in the value system of the general public, including young people, students' consciousness of being community members declined conspicuously, causing a new concern among many people. A survey conducted jointly every year by the American Council on Education and by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles reveals the changes in the awareness of college freshmen, which took place during the 1970's. The most noteworthy change was that students became more materialism-oriented, and a decline in their interest in social participation was witnessed, as well as a decline in enhancing their own general culture, or in making their outlook on life profound.

At the beginning of 1990 the Council voiced the criticism that no new value system for campus life had been created in place of in loco parent is policies. And recommended that the spirit of equity, discipline, honesty, mutual aid and public service, as well as the purposefulness of college, be established towards bringing about rebirth of the campus as a vital learning community. On the other hand, the Council also pointed out that American students were still adhering to the traditional attitudes of committing themselves to learning and that the quality of American higher education could be compared favorably with that in many other countries.

There are well-developed financial assistance programs for undergraduate students. They are provided by the Federal and State governments, and by individual colleges and universities.

The total number of undergraduate students in the United States was approximately 11,210,000 in 1986. According to the above-mentioned report of the American Council on Education, 45.5% of these students were benefiting from some student aid programs, and 34.9% from Federal programs. Federal programs are of three types: grants, loans and work-study programs (whereby remuneration is paid students for their work in their college or in public enterprises). The average yearly amount of assistance per student in 1986 was $1,598 (approximately 290,000 yen) for grants, $2,425 (440,000 yen) for loans, and $1,002 (180,000 yen) for work-study programs.

After World War the Federal Government adopted a policy of increasing the types and budgets of student aid programs. However, during the 1980's, partly because of the financial deficiency of the government and partly because of the low refunding rate of loans, the government began to call for self-help efforts on the part of students and their parents and to propose a drastic reduction in the budget for student aid programs.