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Japan Rethinks Higher Education in Skills Push
Liberal arts will be cut back in favor of business programs that emphasize research or vocational training
Aug. 2, 2015 11:05 p.m. ET WALL STREET JOURNAL
TOKYO—Japan is retooling its public universities, sacrificing liberal-arts programs in collaboration with a business community eager for better-skilled graduates.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s goal is to transform Japan’s government-funded universities into either global leaders in scientific research or schools focused on vocational training. He has called on them to “redefine their missions” and restructure their curricula.
All 86 of the country’s national-level public universities were required by the education ministry to submit restructuring plans by the end of June, and they were told that government funding, upon which they depend, would be allocated according to their embrace of this new vision.
The drive is part of Mr. Abe’s efforts to revitalize Japan, injecting more dynamism and innovation into the economy through a greater focus on research, and improving the competitiveness of its graduates with precisely tailored course work. Many businesses have cut back their training programs and are looking to universities to fill the gap. As businesses become more global, companies are seeking workers with better social and organizational skills and the ability to work in teams.
Critics, though, say the willingness to sacrifice liberal arts along the way is misguided.
With the overhaul effort, Japan joins a swelling number of advanced economies, including the U.S., where shortages of skilled workers have prompted debates about the value of traditional academic disciplines. For Japan, the argument is also being driven by concerns over the quality of instruction, with large class sizes and few classroom discussions, and a mismatch between student expectations and those of their employers.
Surprisingly in a country where lifetime employment at a single company used to be the norm, more than 30% of college graduates quit their first job within three years, according to labor ministry surveys.
Ehime University, in western Japan, focuses more on job training. It plans to eliminate programs and cut combined enrollment in its humanities and education departments by nearly a third, while creating a new regional-development program that will train students for jobs in local industries such as tourism and fisheries, said Katsushi Nishimura, a law professor who oversaw the planning process.
Courses in the new program will be created by a panel of academics and business leaders, which will also appoint the instructors, a role previously played by the faculty, Mr. Nishimura said.
“Look at the business sector. They are introducing outside directors,” he said, referring to Japanese companies adding independent directors to their boards in response to a government push for better corporate governance. “We also need to come out of the ivory tower and listen to the real world.”
Companies are getting more of a say in university curricula under the government’s higher-education plan to give students better job skills for today’s workforce.
But there are critics of this shift. Bruce Stronach, dean of Temple University’s Japan campus, said productive citizens are those who engage in society and understand the political and social issues of the day. “That’s why those traditional fields like arts, literature, history and social sciences are also—and will always be—important,” he said.
The changes don’t sit well with Miho Matsuda, a 20-year-old social-sciences major at Ehime, who says liberal arts are important for students who don’t know what career they want to pursue. “It allows them to find their true interest,” she said.
But she agrees with critics of Japan’s current higher-education system, who say large classes and a heavy emphasis on lectures leave students bored and poorly skilled after graduation. In 2012, two-thirds of Japanese university students spent two hours or less each week studying outside of class, according to a survey by education company Benesse Corp. Sleeping in class is common, students say.
“I don’t study for classes, except when I have assignments due, in which case I work in the library till 9 p.m.,” said Keisuke Fujita, an education and human sciences major at Yokohama National University, which plans to reduce the size of his department next year.
Business leaders say companies are partly to blame for the skills shortage. “The industries need to explain clearly what skills they are looking for in the students,” said Minoru Amoh, a former DuPont executive who serves as chairman of the education-reform panel at the Japan Association of Corporate Executives, a group that has spearheaded the drive for restructuring curricula.
Funding is likely to be a powerful motivator for the universities, which rely on the central government for 70% of their revenue. Competition for students is expected to become more intense as the youth population shrinks, reducing tuition revenue. The number of 18-year-olds is expected to drop by half by 2050, the finance ministry predicts.
Government officials have urged public universities to diversify their revenue sources by emulating schools like the California Institute of Technology, which the finance ministry says derived 56% of its $606 million in annual revenue in 2012-2013 fiscal year from research contracts. At the University of Tokyo, Japan’s top university, the share is only 22%, while 45% of its revenue comes from the government.
One of Mr. Abe’s goals is to eventually have 10 Japanese universities among the world’s top 100. Currently only two enjoy that distinction, according to rankings published by the U.K.’s Times Higher Education magazine: Tokyo University at No. 23 and Kyoto University at No. 59.
Write to Mitsuru Obe at mitsuru.obe@wsj.com
Liberal arts will be cut back in favor of business programs that emphasize research or vocational training
Aug. 2, 2015 11:05 p.m. ET WALL STREET JOURNAL
TOKYO—Japan is retooling its public universities, sacrificing liberal-arts programs in collaboration with a business community eager for better-skilled graduates.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s goal is to transform Japan’s government-funded universities into either global leaders in scientific research or schools focused on vocational training. He has called on them to “redefine their missions” and restructure their curricula.
All 86 of the country’s national-level public universities were required by the education ministry to submit restructuring plans by the end of June, and they were told that government funding, upon which they depend, would be allocated according to their embrace of this new vision.
The drive is part of Mr. Abe’s efforts to revitalize Japan, injecting more dynamism and innovation into the economy through a greater focus on research, and improving the competitiveness of its graduates with precisely tailored course work. Many businesses have cut back their training programs and are looking to universities to fill the gap. As businesses become more global, companies are seeking workers with better social and organizational skills and the ability to work in teams.
Critics, though, say the willingness to sacrifice liberal arts along the way is misguided.
With the overhaul effort, Japan joins a swelling number of advanced economies, including the U.S., where shortages of skilled workers have prompted debates about the value of traditional academic disciplines. For Japan, the argument is also being driven by concerns over the quality of instruction, with large class sizes and few classroom discussions, and a mismatch between student expectations and those of their employers.
Surprisingly in a country where lifetime employment at a single company used to be the norm, more than 30% of college graduates quit their first job within three years, according to labor ministry surveys.
Ehime University, in western Japan, focuses more on job training. It plans to eliminate programs and cut combined enrollment in its humanities and education departments by nearly a third, while creating a new regional-development program that will train students for jobs in local industries such as tourism and fisheries, said Katsushi Nishimura, a law professor who oversaw the planning process.
Courses in the new program will be created by a panel of academics and business leaders, which will also appoint the instructors, a role previously played by the faculty, Mr. Nishimura said.
“Look at the business sector. They are introducing outside directors,” he said, referring to Japanese companies adding independent directors to their boards in response to a government push for better corporate governance. “We also need to come out of the ivory tower and listen to the real world.”
Companies are getting more of a say in university curricula under the government’s higher-education plan to give students better job skills for today’s workforce.
But there are critics of this shift. Bruce Stronach, dean of Temple University’s Japan campus, said productive citizens are those who engage in society and understand the political and social issues of the day. “That’s why those traditional fields like arts, literature, history and social sciences are also—and will always be—important,” he said.
The changes don’t sit well with Miho Matsuda, a 20-year-old social-sciences major at Ehime, who says liberal arts are important for students who don’t know what career they want to pursue. “It allows them to find their true interest,” she said.
But she agrees with critics of Japan’s current higher-education system, who say large classes and a heavy emphasis on lectures leave students bored and poorly skilled after graduation. In 2012, two-thirds of Japanese university students spent two hours or less each week studying outside of class, according to a survey by education company Benesse Corp. Sleeping in class is common, students say.
“I don’t study for classes, except when I have assignments due, in which case I work in the library till 9 p.m.,” said Keisuke Fujita, an education and human sciences major at Yokohama National University, which plans to reduce the size of his department next year.
Business leaders say companies are partly to blame for the skills shortage. “The industries need to explain clearly what skills they are looking for in the students,” said Minoru Amoh, a former DuPont executive who serves as chairman of the education-reform panel at the Japan Association of Corporate Executives, a group that has spearheaded the drive for restructuring curricula.
Funding is likely to be a powerful motivator for the universities, which rely on the central government for 70% of their revenue. Competition for students is expected to become more intense as the youth population shrinks, reducing tuition revenue. The number of 18-year-olds is expected to drop by half by 2050, the finance ministry predicts.
Government officials have urged public universities to diversify their revenue sources by emulating schools like the California Institute of Technology, which the finance ministry says derived 56% of its $606 million in annual revenue in 2012-2013 fiscal year from research contracts. At the University of Tokyo, Japan’s top university, the share is only 22%, while 45% of its revenue comes from the government.
One of Mr. Abe’s goals is to eventually have 10 Japanese universities among the world’s top 100. Currently only two enjoy that distinction, according to rankings published by the U.K.’s Times Higher Education magazine: Tokyo University at No. 23 and Kyoto University at No. 59.
Write to Mitsuru Obe at mitsuru.obe@wsj.com