Re: Note on "Reform" for Symposium on the University Corporation Law, September 27, 2003

To: People's Network to Protect the Autonomy of Japan's National Universities
From: Brian J. McVeigh
Date: September 3, 2003

I have lived and worked in Japan for 16 years. For eleven of those years I worked in Japan's colleges and universities. I have had experience teaching in all sorts of institutions, including women's colleges, co-ed universities, and elite institutions. Over the years I witnessed the squandering of great potential among students, professors, and institutions, mostly because the state has bureaucratized higher education and squeezed the creativeness, imagination, and spirit out of faculty and students.

An unfortunate example of this bureaucratization and unnecessary centralization is the University Corporation Law. I believe that this law is being implemented for the convenience of Ministry officials and because the "reformers" lack any ideas of their own on how to improve Japanese colleges and universities. The University Corporation Law will not improve the quality of higher education; on the contrary, it will lead to more state control and, sadly for Japan's students, less quality.

As you know, quality and standards are universal and do not belong to any one national community. For instance, there is no need to assume that American universities are doing a better job of educating the public. They may be, but if they are, it is because the state is not allowed to interfere in their operations as much as in Japan.

Japan's state authorities are too quick to adopt a foreign model in a desperate attempt to fix a problem. However, such attempts at quick-fixes are often based on only a superficial understanding of a foreign system. Quick fixes usually end up ignoring the real and underlying problems. The idealization and careless importation of foreign models only lead to more problems. Foreign models were designed for other places, and are not necessarily appropriate to the real problems facing Japan's higher education. There is no need to "model" them or "emulate" American or UK higher education. Higher education in Japan should be improved along Japanese lines, drawing upon the many talented individuals in Japan.

Japan already has enough qualified personnel, funding, and facilities to build a high-quality system of higher education. What needs to be done is to dismantle the state structures that hinder the emergence of a system with high standards. In order to do this, Japanese citizens should be informed of the serious problems facing Japan's universities and how such problems will impact upon Japan's future and their children's lives. They should be told of how they can pressure their leaders to deregulate tertiary schooling.

I might also add, that specifically, universities, whether national, public, or private, should strongly:

- Encourage the enrollment of adult students on a massive scale: in order to share their life experiences and show young people how to study as well offsetting the demographic cline in 18 year-olds.

- Open campuses to the public: in order to make them part of the community.

- De-emphasize entrance examinations but emphasize mastering coursework: to make it harder to graduate in order to challenged students and provide them with an enriching educational experience.

- Create an inviting learning environment for international students and faculty from overseas: in order to genuinely internationalize Japanese higher education.

Sincerely yours,
Brian J. McVeigh

Author of Japanese Higher Education as Myth. M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, New York, 2002.

Department of East Asian Studies
University of Arizona
P.O. Box 210105
Tucson, AZ 85721-0105
USA