Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > JAPANESE GOVERMENT POLICIES IN EDUCATION, SCIENCE, SPORTS AND CULTURE 1995 > Remaking Universities Chapter 4 Section 1 4

The most important goal of university reform is to enhance the education provided to students. All changes and improvements affecting the educational functions of universities must therefore focus on students' needs. From now on universities will have the task of accommodating and appropriately educating an increasingly diverse student body, and they will therefore need to develop finely tuned service functions that are capable of meeting the needs of individual students.

Students entering universities today vary considerably in their abilities, aptitudes, interests, and concerns. The provision of appropriate, wide-ranging guidance and support in such areas as educational guidance, student lifestyles, and careers is a vital part of the mission of institutions of higher education.

Students face varied and increasingly complex problems and difficulties, and the provision of student counseling will therefore become more and more important. Furthermore, the benefits of curriculum reform cannot be fully realized unless students are provided with appropriate guidance about their studies. From now on, universities will need to work systematically to develop and expand comprehensive guidance systems that encompass these aspects.

In evaluating educational achievements at the university level, it is necessary to consider not only the evaluation of academic studies but also the significance of extracurricular activities and all other aspects of student life, which play an important role in learning about judgment and life in general, as well as universities' involvement in those activities.

The spread of higher education, the advance of learning, the trend toward interdisciplinary studies, and socioeconomic changes are reflected in the diversification of the knowledge that students acquire at university, including the proliferation of new and more comprehensive faculties and departments and student mobility among fields. It has become extremely important, in this context, to provide students with finely tuned employment guidance, including continuous career guidance beginning soon after admission. It is also vital to enable students to link their university education with appropriate employment choices.

Universities must clarify the kinds of added value they offer students and the types of human resources they produce, as well. Having provided this information, they must then make active efforts to ensure that society, including business corporations, recognizes their achievements. This is especially important at the graduate level, since companies and other organizations do not always place a high value on people who have completed graduate studies. There has been criticism that when hiring university graduates companies and other organizations do not adequately recognize master's degrees and doctorates in the employment conditions offered, such as salary and promotion opportunities. It is hoped that universities will increase their efforts to provide attractive graduate programs that are capable of training the human resources sought by society and that government agencies, business corporations, and other employers will endeavor to provide employment conditions that reflect their personnel's educational attainments.

Improving financial support for students is an important means of ensuring that highly motivated young people, who are vital to Japan's future, are able to study without worrying about their families ' financial situation. In recent years the student cost of living, which includes tuition and other fees, has consistently risen faster than the consumer price index. Alleviation of students ' financial burden is a key priority in terms of ensuring equality of educational opportunity. To provide access to university education to all who have the ability to benefit from it, it is necessary to expand the student aid programs administered by the Japan Scholarship Foundation and to enhance the support offered by universities, private-sector scholarship organizations, and other groups.