The Changing Academic Profession in Japan

268 Pages·2015·3.72 MB·English

by  Akira Arimoto

The Changing Academy – The Changing Academic Profession
in International Comparative Perspective 11
Akira Arimoto
William K. Cummings
Futao Huang
Jung Cheol Shin Editors
The Changing
Academic
Profession in
Japan
The Changing Academic Profession in Japan
The Changing Academy – The Changing Academic Profession
in International Comparative Perspective 11
Series Editors
William K. Cummings, The George Washington University, Washington, USA
Akira Arimoto, Kurashiki Sakuyo University, Kurashiki City, Okayama, Japan
Editorial Board
Jürgen Enders, University of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands
Amy Metcalfe, the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Christine Musselin, CSO Research Interests Higher Education and Research, Paris, France
Rui Santiago, University of Aveiro, Portugal
Simon Schwartzman, Institute for Studies and Labour and Society, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Ulrich Teichler, University of Kassel, Germany
Charles Wohluter, Northwest University, South Africa
Scope of the series
As the landscape of higher education has in recent years undergone signifi c ant changes, so
correspondingly have the backgrounds, specializations, expectations and work roles of
academic staff. The Academy is expected to be more professional in teaching, more productive
in research and more entrepreneurial in everything. Some of the changes involved have raised
questions about the attractiveness of an academic career for today’s graduates. At the same
time, knowledge has come to be identi fi ed as the most vital resource of contemporary
societies.
The Changing Academy series examines the nature and extent of the changes experienced by
the academic profession in recent years. It explores both the reasons for and the consequences
of these changes. It considers the implications of the changes for the attractiveness of the
academic profession as a career and for the ability of the academic community to contribute
to the further development of knowledge societies and the attainment of national goals. It
makes comparisons on these matters between different national higher education systems,
institutional types, disciplines and generations of academics, drawing initially on available
data-sets and qualitative research studies with special emphasis on the recent twenty nation
survey of the Changing Academic Profession. Among the themes featured will be:
1. Relevance of the Academy’s Work
2. Internationalization of the Academy
3. Current Governance and Management, particularly as perceived by the Academy
4. Commitment of the Academy
The audience includes researchers in higher education, sociology of education and political
science studies; university managers and administrators; national and institutional
policymakers; of fi cials and staff at governments and organizations, e.g. the World Bank.
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/8668
Akira Arimoto (cid:129) William K. Cummings
Futao Huang (cid:129) Jung Cheol Shin
Editors
The Changing Academic
Profession in Japan
Editors
Akira Arimoto William K. Cummings
Research Institute for Higher Education Department of Educational Leadership
Kurashiki Sakuyo University The George Washington University
Kurashiki, Okayama , Japan Washington , DC , USA
Futao Huang Jung Cheol Shin
Research Institute for Higher Education Department of Education
Hiroshima University Seoul National University
Higashi-Hiroshima , Japan Seoul , South Korea
ISBN 978-3-319-09467-0 ISBN 978-3-319-09468-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-09468-7
Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014953519
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015
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Prefa ce
T his volume provides an empirical and qualitative analysis of the nature and extent
of the Japanese academic profession and especially changes that took place over the
period 1992–2007. It is based on responses to the Carnegie Survey 1992, in which
the Japanese survey was conducted as a part, and the following Japanese Survey
2007, two comprehensive surveys with similar questionnaires administered to faculty
samples in Japan, and has been developed, with enlargement, from H enbousuru
Nippon no Daigakukyojushoku ( The Changing Academic Profession in Japan ),
published in 2008. It covers key aspects of Japanese faculty members’ academic
activities and their views on these activities.
Academia has a long history going back more than nine centuries worldwide to
the birth of universities in the middle ages and about 140 years to the birth of the fi rst
modern university in Japan. Recent social changes include globalization, emergence
of the knowledge-based society, marketization, corporatization, mass higher educa-
tion, and lifelong learning. A specifi c important social change in Japan in recent
years has been population decline, including that in the college-age population.
I n addition to the social changes, national government policies have had huge
effects on academia in terms of conditions, structures, and functions. The reform of
university establishment standards in recent years has emerged as a key development
in the fi eld of higher education through a series of government policies of relaxation
of regulations by PCAR (the Provisional Commission on Administrative Reform)
and the UC (University Council). Accordingly, quality assurance and evaluation of
teaching and research have become the focus of reforms since 1991, when the UC
made proposals focusing on teaching reforms.
T eaching reform has been encouraged even more strongly since 2008, when the
CCE (Central Council for Education) further made proposals focusing on teaching
reforms in relation to areas including general education, curriculum, syllabus, tutoring
system, small-group teaching, offi ce hours, IT (information technology), GPA
(grade point average), CAP, credit system, semester system, coursework, educational
environment, and rigorous assessment of student academic achievement.
v
vi Preface
T hese social changes and government policies have inevitably impacted strongly
on the academic profession. First of all, social changes affect faculty consciousness
as well as their actions as regards the knowledge-based society, globalization,
marketization, lifelong learning, and population decline. Second, higher educa-
tion policies such as the reports of the UC and the CCE have brought variations
in faculty status and created a professional career path. In relation to these
policies, transformations of academia have included national universities’ corpora-
tization, differentiated universities and colleges, and top-down governance and
management. Third, “reconstruction of knowledge” has brought changes in university
curricula, organizational bodies, and the roles and functions of faculty. Thus, faculty
members have been subjected to social expectations as well as pressures bringing
about changes in their status, standing, role, and academic productivity. In particular,
expectations of academic productivity have dramatically shifted to a teaching
orientation from a research orientation as a result of FD (faculty development),
which has been carried out since 1998, even though Japan’s academics still maintain
a strong preference for research.
A s a result of these pressures and new visions of academia, the academic pro-
fession has been forced to form a new identity, with consequently many confl icts
accompanying psychological stress. Academics have been required to reform
the profession and reconsider the nature of scholarship through the integration of
teaching and research and making further progress in academic productivity.
The profession is increasingly expected to be sustainable in quality as well as ability
so as to develop and create changes in society, policies, and knowledge.
I n a major sense, the volume not only focuses on the empirical analysis but also pays
great attention to the study of the Japanese academic profession from historical and
comparative perspectives. The following aspects are particularly worth mentioning:
First, some of the chapters deal with the social and economic environment as well as
the educational context under which changes had taken place in the Japanese academic
profession between 1992 and 2007. Second, a wide range of variables are employed in
individual chapters with an aim of exploring the essential characteristics of the Japanese
academic profession and the changes that had occurred in their activities and their
views. Third, some efforts have been made to deal with the real effects of changes on
Japan’s academic profession, what drives these changes, and how national policymakers
may push the academic profession forward in their own national settings.
A nchored as the 2007 survey is in the original 1992 Carnegie Foundation for
the Advancement of Teaching Survey of the International Academic Profession, the
volume provides an opportunity to document and assess the progress and prospects
for the Japanese academic profession over the period.
F inally, we would like to acknowledge Professor Keith Morgan, who passed
away in 2012 while contributing with much endeavor to the translation of Japanese
articles into English.
Kurashiki , Okayama , Japan Akira Arimoto
Washington , DC , USA William K. Cummings
Higashi-Hiroshima , Japan Futao Huang
Seoul , South Korea Jung Cheol Shin
Contents
1 Introduction: The Changing Academic Profession
in Japan: Its Past and Present ............................................................... 1
Akira Arimoto
2 Higher Education Policy and the Academic Profession ...................... 27
Yoshimasa Kano
3 Mobility .................................................................................................... 41
Atsunori Yamanoi
4 Academic Funding and Allocation of Research Money ....................... 5 7
Akihiro Asonuma and Hiroaki Urata
5 Changes in University Teachers’ View Towards
Students: Impact of Universalization .................................................... 79
Naoyuki Ogata
6 Gender Bias: What Has Changed for Female Academics? ................. 89
Naomi Kimoto
7 Governance, Administration, and Management .................................. 103
Masashi Fujimura
8 Labor Conditions .................................................................................... 1 19
Hirotaka Nanbu and Tomomi Amano
9 Working Time and Personal Strain ....................................................... 135
Yusuke Hasegawa
10 Research Productivity ............................................................................. 1 49
Tsukasa Daizen
vii
viii Contents
11 Teaching and Research in the Academic Profession:
Nexus and Conflict .................................................................................. 169
Hideto Fukudome
12 The Academic Profession and Evaluation ............................................ 185
Masataka Murasawa
13 Internationalization ................................................................................ 197
Futao Huang
14 Higher Education and Society ............................................................... 213
Hirotoshi Yamasaki
15 The Academic Profession: A Comparison Between
Japan and Germany ............................................................................... 221
Ulrich Teichler
16 The Invisible Academy: A US Perspective on the Japanese
Academic Profession ............................................................................... 235
William K. Cummings
17 Similar but Different Worlds: A Korean Perspective
on the Japanese Academic Profession ................................................... 243
Jung Cheol Shin
Epilogue: Perspective of the Academic Profession ....................................... 253
Akira Arimoto
Notes on Contributors .................................................................................... 265
Notes on Editors .............................................................................................. 269
Chapter 1
Introduction: The Changing Academic
Profession in Japan: Its Past and Present
Akira Arimoto
S urveys of university history reveal that universities have overcome many crises
and challenges in the 900 years since the establishment of medieval European
universities. Developments in the roles of universities have never been accompa-
nied by a smooth relationship with society, and this is perhaps especially true
today. At present, universities and higher education are pressured by social
changes, such as emergent knowledge-based societies, globalization, and marketi-
zation; confronted by national demands for increased international competitive-
ness; and faced by the ever-accelerating rate of scientifi c growth that requires
continuous reconstruction of knowledge.
U niversities worldwide are thus now facing a crisis. It is also very clear that both
the missions and roles of the academic profession, as a profession, are signifi cant
for the inevitable review and organizational reconstruction of the universities.
The academic profession in Japan provides no exception. The studies included in
this volume are directed to a general consideration of the impact of such issues,
mainly from the viewpoints of research, social change, university reform, and
changes in the academic profession.
1.1 Viewpoints of This Volume
1.1.1 What Is the Academic Profession?
A s the main title of this volume is “The Changing Academic Profession,” at the
outset it is important to defi ne the academic profession. Many previous studies in
A. Arimoto (*)
Research Institute for Higher Education , Kurashiki Sakuyo University ,
Kurashiki , Okayama , Japan
e-mail: [email protected]
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 1
A. Arimoto et al. (eds.), The Changing Academic Profession in Japan,
The Changing Academy – The Changing Academic Profession in International
Comparative Perspective 11, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-09468-7_1