Facilitating higher education mobility for the future

views from Japanese context

Akiyoshi YonezawaCAHE, Tohoku University

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Japan in a global policy context• Abe (2006-2007): maintain a leading position in Asia by

opening up Japanese society– ‘Internationalization of Japanese HE’ became one of top policy

agenda• Fukuda (2007-2008) : Education as a diplomatic tool

– Plan for inviting 300,000 international students– Global 30: select 30 universities for supporting

internationalization– Proposal of Asian ‘ERASMUS’

• Aso (2008- ): Aiming to take a leadership for tackling with Economic Crisis– Central Council for Education (Advisory Council for MEXT) starts

discussion on roadmap for improving global competitiveness and internationalization of HE

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Japanese HE and Globalization• Highly privatized international student market

– 80 to 90 % of international students are technically self-financed– Relying on the over-demand in neighboring countries, and over-

supply in home HE market• Internationalization in two arenas (Global/domestic: Teichler 1999)

– Non-English speaking but substantially large• Demographic pressure both in society as a whole

– Low birth rate, decreasing youth population, aging (Yonezawa & Kim 2008)

– Retirement of first baby boomers and unpopularity of engineering profession among youngsters

• Rapid growth and internationalization of neighboring countries• Limited scholarships for studying abroad by home students

Number and Share of International Students in Japan (2006)

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China 74292 63.0%South Korea 15974 13.5%Taiwan 4211 3.6%Malaysia 2156 1.8%Viet nam 2119 1.8%United States 1790 1.5%Thailand 1734 1.5%Indonesia 1553 1.3%Bangkadesh 1456 1.2%Slilanka 1143 1.0%Others 11499 9.8%Total 117927 100.0%

Two types of approaches for internationalization

1. (mainly national universities): strengthen the research capacities to internationally competitive levels: but relying on domestic grants (international reviews becoming common)

2. (mainly private universities): improve the quality of education to meet international standards: quality assurance including foreign accreditation, benchmarking etc.

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Profile of Top 200 Japanese Universities (QS/THES 2008)

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Singapore 100Germany 97France 88Malaysia 87Mexico 85China 78South Korea 77　 　North Korea 69Afghanistan 67Macau 66Japan, Mongolia, Lao 65Cambodia 63

Classes taught in English

• Bachelor programs– 0%: 29.1% (national: 16.7%, private: 31.6%)– 10% or more: 18.5% (n: 8.3%, p: 19.8%)

• Master programs– 0%: 58.1% (n: 23.3%, p: 67.8%)– 10% or more: 9.5% (n: 23.3%, p: 6.8%)

• Doctorate programs– 0%: 66.5% (n: 25.9%, p: 76.3%)– 10% or more: 10.3% (n: 25.9%, p: 7.1%)

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Internationalization & Finance

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Linkage with labor market:

• Recruitment fit for long-term employment in a homogeneous culture by Japanese firms– Job hunting long before graduation with time-

consuming selection process– In-house promotion linked with seniority based

salary scheme: unattractive for non-Japanese white-collar workers and high-skilled professionals

– Lack of career path to be a leader capable for managing multi-national enterprises

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Salary increase of MBA holder (Kato 2003)

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Facilitating higher education mobility for the future in Japanese context

• Mismatch between policy vision for ‘a global leader’ and reality in HE far from cosmopolitan environment

• Different agenda are dealt with in a single word– Research is stressed at national universities, while

curriculum/teaching is put importance at private universities– Hierarchies: majorities are relatively domestic or local

• Danger: Internationalization of HE will become a dead letter?– Manipulation for achieving an ambitious goals: Redefinition of

‘international students’, discussion for developing Japanese original ‘world university rankings’

• Internationalization through internal resources– Lack of regional-level funds to rely on, no market competitiveness in

English-based education services• Need for structural change of Japanese society as a whole

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Merci bien!

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