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PART Recent Trends and Developments in Government Policies in Education, Science and Culture

In order for Japan's higher education to adequately cope with a rapidly changing society and diverse demands from the public, the nation's institutions of higher education should demonstrate their own distinctive characteristics, and develop freely and in diverse ways according to their respective founding principles and goals. Standards for the framework of Japanese higher education should be as flexible as possible to allow universities to demonstrate their innovative and creative measures and develop in their own unique ways.

Based on the aforementioned viewpoints which were highlighted in the report of the University Council, the Ministry carried out a thorough revision of the Standards for the Establishment of Universities and other regulations in June of 1991. In addition to making standards simpler and more flexible, standards were fixed requiring institutions of higher education to conduct self-evaluations of their own respective educational and research activities. At present all institutions are actively conducting investigations into how research and education should be carried out and continuing efforts towards compiling reports etc., regarding their own self-monitoring and self evaluation regulations and the condition of their respective research and educational programs.