L. V. ZHILINA

Candidate of Historical Sciences

Omsk State University named after F. M. Dostoevsky

Keywords: Japan, universities, globalization, rankings

What does modern higher education in Japan look like? How do Japanese education authorities and universities themselves respond to the challenges of competition - between themselves and higher education institutions in other countries?

Higher education plays an essential role in the processes that determine the life of society. Universities are not only responsible for transmitting knowledge, skills and abilities from generation to generation. Universities "supply" professionals, without whose participation the economy and culture cannot function. The activity of universities contributes to the erosion of social barriers in society, facilitates movement from one social stratum to another. Without all this, the country cannot develop and improve its competitiveness in the international arena in the context of globalization.

CHANGES IN THE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM

As a first approximation, the Japanese higher education system can be represented as a system consisting of a management unit represented by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan and its structures, and management objects - universities.¹ The whole system does not exist in isolation, but is deeply embedded in the Japanese (and now international) socio-economic environment.

The Japanese higher education system has always been characterized by strict and conservative management and the numerical predominance of private universities over public and other subordinate universities². This system is managed by two methods: one of them can be called financial and economic (direct funding and grants), and the other-administrative and methodological (formation of legislation on education, adoption of teaching programs, guidelines, etc.). It is clear that the financial levers of influence that the Ministry has at its disposal are more effective they affect state and "public" universities. Private Japanese universities have more independence in this sense, but also more dependent on the "external" socio-economic situation.

What processes have influenced the evolution of the Japanese higher education system more strongly in recent years?

You can name three of them.

The first of a series of interrelated causes is the changing demographic situation in the country and the general aging of the population. In particular, the age group of 18-year-olds, i.e. potential university students, which had been stable at 1.5 million until the mid-1980s, peaked at 2.05 million in 1992, and by 2000 had declined to 1.51 million and by 2010 had fallen to a record low of 1.22 million. ³.

Such changes could not but have a significant impact on the Japanese higher education system. One of the defining features of Japanese universities has always been the strict selection criteria for applicants and a strict competitive system of entrance exams. During the period of rapid growth of the age group of potential students, universities, in one way or another, expanded and increased their "capacity".

Chart. Number of universities and colleges in Japan (1955-2013).

Source: Nippon.com based on the MEHT database: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology-http://www.mext.go.jp/english/statistics/index.htm

In the following years, when the number of potential applicants began to decline, universities and colleges were forced to review the entire system, from tuition fees to approaches to financing and management-as far as the regulatory documents allowed. Of course, there was no decrease in the number of universities, but for universities, the struggle for students has become a new and very unexpected experience - after all, earlier in Japan, the number of applicants always exceeded the number of students recruited for the first year of higher education.

The second important factor that led to changes was the economic situation in the country. The recession, which began in the 1990s after the economic bubble burst and continues to this day, also had a major impact on university reforms. In particular, it has caused Japan to lag behind the rest of the developed world in information technology. In order to compensate for this delay in development, it was important to improve the quality of the labor force supplied to the labor market, which, in turn, means the need to improve the activities of universities responsible for training this very labor force.

The stagnation of the Japanese economy could not but affect, first of all, private educational institutions, which began to gradually go bankrupt, because they could not attract a sufficient number of students due to the combined action of two reasons: a decrease in funding from private companies due to a general decline in economic activity and a "demographic" drop in the number of applicants.

The third important factor is caused by changes in educational policy at the state level, which began in the 1980s. The process of liberalizing the education system in the early 1990s led to far-reaching changes that made adjustments to the standards for establishing universities and the rules governing their organizational structure. These reforms have given universities greater freedom in the organization of their academic programs and freed them from the extremes of exceptionally strict regulation by the Ministry. A certain simplification of the procedure for obtaining official registration as a university (and even against the background of an increase in the number of potential applicants) led to the fact that the number of universities began to grow rapidly - from 507 accredited universities in 1990 to 649 in 2000 and 782 in 2013. The number of private universities grew at a faster pace (from 372 in 1990 to 606 in 2013), while the number of state (national)universities even decreased during this period - from 96 to 86 (see fig.)⁴.

The predominance of the private sector in the Japanese education market, which accounts for approximately 80% of all students, has led to a developed market in the field of educational services in the country, where universities have to compete in a competitive struggle for funding, for the influx of students and teachers.

The struggle for resources and the need to make effective use of limited funding have created serious prerequisites for establishing market principles in the public sector as well. Numerous cases of corporatization ^of national universities in the country have become only the most obvious examples of the general trend towards market expansion and privatisation5.

EDUCATION MARKET AND ACCESSIBILITY

In Europe, where higher education has been free for many years and where young people are more likely to pursue higher education in publicly funded universities and colleges, the search for a solution to the problem of "accessibility" of education is on the same plane as the question of who should cover the costs associated with higher education (and, in particular, the cost of higher education). in particular, university) education.

In recent years, the UK has tried to solve the problem by introducing (and then increasing) tuition fees; the US has also tried to increase tuition fees at more universities. Even in the EU, where most of the free education system continues, there is a lively debate about who should bear the cost of expanding access to higher education.⁶

The Japanese approach to higher education has always been that government investment should be kept to a minimum. In addition, tuition fees, on which most private universities depend for their revenues, tend to come out of the pocket of the population, rather than from national or business sources. In other words, the modern Japanese education system exists mainly by covering expenses with funds from the Japanese family budgets.

Historically, Japan has moved faster than European countries in expanding access to higher education. According to the latest statistics, more than 50% of young people of student age in Japan now have the opportunity to complete a four-year university education, and another 25% - to complete a two-year course of study in colleges and equivalent vocational schools and technical schools. This means that 75% of young Japanese people from the so-called student-age group have access to higher and secondary special education. And this state was achieved with a minimum of support from the government ⁷.

Modern education policy has emphasized private interests and the market, which, from the point of view of equal opportunities, has led to problems in obtaining it and the quality of education itself. Of course, this approach made it possible to involve a large number of young people in educational processes. But since this "accessibility" is achieved by increasing the number of private universities, its solution directly and largely depends on the level of income of the potential student's family.

Do Japanese families have enough reserves to solve this nationwide problem? It seems that government scholarships will continue to be insufficient, and the country will not be able to overcome the economic constraints on access to higher education. So far, with increasing availability in absolute terms (the number of places in universities), there is still an inequality of opportunities for students, which directly depends on their financial status, more precisely, the financial status of their families.

New problems arose when the population of those aged 18 and over, i.e. those who were supposed to take places in educational institutions, began to decline. The massive expansion of private universities led to the fact that this system began to fail. With the exception of admission to a small number of elite educational institutions, getting into university is no longer something special that requires a tough competition.

Since private universities must provide a certain number of students to support themselves as viable economic entities with economic "airbags", they will soon be forced to accept them regardless of their academic achievements or guaranteed willingness to pay for a full course of study. In other words: the number of universities has increased, and Japan is entering an era where anyone can go to university if they want.⁸

Another major problem: increased access to higher education has coincided with a decline in the quality of education. It has been compounded by the fact that the emphasis on private universities has reinforced the tendency to treat higher education as a profitable personal investment (primarily for the student himself).

This is primarily because private universities (especially financially weak ones) are heavily dependent on tuition fees. No matter what efforts such universities make, it is difficult for them to maintain educational standards above a certain level. There are certain difficulties in expelling students - even if their grades are unsatisfactory, because "live" money goes with the students.

Another factor: to minimize costs, many classes are held in large lecture-style classrooms, and this creates difficulties for teachers, complicates feedback for students, and, as a result, reduces their level of knowledge. According to various surveys conducted in private sector educational institutions, the vast majority of students spend at least a week preparing, and every fifth student does not attend the required number of classes, preferring lectures where "you can easily earn credit" to classes "in which the student is interested, but it is difficult to earn credit for them." The number of such students increased to 55%, which is 5.9% more than four years ago.⁹

Finally, one more thing came to light: since the Japanese education system is designed in such a way that even before graduation, students must decide which company they will work for, and which companies will hire which students, most students are already looking for a job from the middle of the training period. And that doesn't leave them time to attend ¹⁰ classes.

Private universities have no choice but to tolerate this attitude of students. After all, the reputation of a university depends on the number of graduates who successfully found a job after graduation. This makes it almost impossible to make rigorous assessments for final-year students and expel those who spend most of their time not in classes at the university, but with potential employers.

It should be emphasized once again that all these problems arise in Japan due to the fact that many private universities are highly dependent on the tuition fees they receive from students.

LIVE FOR A CENTURY AND LEARN FOR A CENTURY

The success that accompanied the Japanese economy until the early 1990s, despite the country's lack of natural resources, is often attributed to the excellent training of the workforce and the creation of a skilled corporate governance system that was able to get the most out of its employees. In Japan's "golden" times, even private companies guaranteed their employees stable long-term employment, and the qualification skills of employees were improved through an effective "on-site" training system, where the employee could improve their skills right at work and during working hours.

This approach, based on collaboration and collaboration, rather than the initially highly qualified incoming employees, has been used to achieve high labor productivity in Japan. At the same time, job responsibilities (and the skills required to perform them) were usually formulated less harshly than in the West. Prior to joining the company, employees did not have an urgent need to acquire highly professional skills or knowledge, as they could get them during long-term on-the-job training.

This meant that companies, by and large, were not interested in ensuring that graduates did well at the university. Rather, it was the "learning ability" of the employee who entered the company that was important, whether he would be able to effectively master the necessary skills in order to apply them later in practice. To get an idea of this trait of an employee, companies also looked at what educational institution their potential employee had previously studied at. Diligence, intelligence and speed of understanding were the main parameters that were tested by university entrance exams, and they were also noted as an indicator of the" learning ability " of a future employee. It was believed that students who managed to get into prestigious higher education institutions after passing the strict entrance exams would be in demand as soon as they entered the labor market. This competition itself guaranteed "learnability", which, in the end, determined the attitude of future employers to the student.

This approach to hiring and training employees was effective as long as there were stable employment opportunities - at least for male employees and in large corporations. However, this approach has become less effective as the number of vacancies has declined and Japan's typical lifetime hiring system has been compromised. In addition, this approach initially "stalled" in relation to women, as well as people who often change jobs, and other applicants for vacancies who have significant gaps in the resume.

In addition, the foundations of the traditional Japanese education system were being eroded by globalization and demographic changes. In order to protect middle-level and older employees ' jobs, as well as to reduce payroll costs, many companies are now forced to hire fewer young people for permanent cooperation. There has been a "shift" in companies towards accepting temporary and part-time employees. These changes coincided with the liberalization of labor legislation aimed at improving the competitiveness of companies in a globalized economy.

Thus, when other countries seek to train their young people for a longer period of time to improve the quality of their curricula, Japanese universities cannot make full use of even the four-year university course.

How to counteract these trends? It seems that within the framework of the paradigm of interaction between education and business, the answer to this question has not yet been found.

GLOBALIZATION LOVES RATINGS

Today, every country's universities and higher education systems are inevitably part of a network that spans the entire world. The existence of this network is supported not only by the principles of the universal nature of knowledge and training, but also by the mobility of researchers and students, their migration from one country to another. Students and researchers are becoming more mobile, and the competition between universities to attract the most gifted students and the most talented researchers is becoming more intense and pronounced.

Globalization directly affects universities, as it makes the task of spreading national cultures particularly relevant, contributes to the standardization of education (under the influence of modern information technologies and the emergence of global research networks). It also limits the budgetary capacity of developed countries, on which most of the financing of university education depends.¹¹

Working to transform national universities and bring them closer to international standards is one of the most important components of administrative reform in Japan. This is why the issue of "internationalization" of Japanese universities has become so acute in recent years. Globalization is most often seen in Japan as a factor of introducing elements of a market economy to universities. At the same time, the reform process is extremely difficult and painful, because the increasing mobility of students, the movement towards unified international curricula, the rapid growth in the number of academic studies conducted - all this, on the one hand, contributes to the development of universities, and on the other, violates the centuries - old Japanese system of university values.

In the" National University Reform Plan from 2013 to 2015 and up to 2020", the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Technology of Japan named, in particular, the following areas::

- reform of the human resources and remuneration system, which will revitalize research by attracting highly qualified domestic and foreign teachers;

- involvement of university presidents in solving management problems while making optimal use of each university's strengths;

- Doubling the number of Japanese students studying abroad and international students studying in Japan by 2020;

- making efforts to ensure that at least 10 Japanese universities are ranked in the world's top 100 universities in the next 10 years."*

It is typical to include an item on world rankings in this list. What are the starting conditions in which the Ministry will have to solve the "rating" tasks? What has already been done in this direction? Which universities are most likely to reach the top of the world rankings?

For many years, Japan's national universities have existed under the direct control of the Ministry of Education. Their teachers were government employees, and universities had very little real autonomy in making budgets and hiring faculty. But it was national universities that were the first to feel the impact of the growing international competition caused by globalization. It is national universities that have so far achieved the highest ratings in various rankings of the best universities in the world.

International university rankings are attracting more and more attention around the world - this is an important indicator of global competition between universities. The position in the world university rankings is becoming an important argument for Japanese universities in discussions about government support measures.

The most popular ranking of the best universities in the world is calculated according to the methodology of the British publication Times Higher Education with the participation of the information group Thomson Reuters. The level of achievements of universities is assessed based on the results of an analysis of their activities, as well as the results of an annual global expert survey of representatives of the international academic community and employers who express their opinions about universities. The main evaluation criteria are: international student and faculty mobility, the number of international scholarship programs, the level of scientific research, contribution to innovation, citation of scientific articles, the level of educational services, etc. All scores are normalized to the maximum and reduced to a 100-point scale. The surveys cover tens of thousands of scientists from most countries of the world. Data from the global survey form the basis of the sub-rating of the scientific reputation of world universities (The World Reputation Rankings), which is published as a separate publication within the project ¹³.

The ranking tables of the 400 best universities in the world for 2013-2014 included 11 Japanese universities, but only two of them appear in the top hundred: the University of Tokyo (it is in 23rd place) and Kyoto University (52nd). Tokyo Institute of Technology, Osaka and Tohoku Universities are placed in the second hundred of the rating, and even lower are such respected universities in Japan as Kyushu, Hokkaido and Tsukuba Universities.¹⁴

However, in the Asia University Ranking sub-rating, which was also published in 2014, the University of Tokyo took first place, and 18 other Japanese universities were included in the top 100.-

best Asian universities. However, these achievements are negated by the fact that universities in East Asian countries always occupy low places in such rankings, and recently the positions of Japanese universities, as well as universities in other Asian countries, are on a downward trajectory. ¹⁵

What are the reasons for such low ratings? It turns out that Japan's ratings are particularly affected by the indicator called "international outlook", which is expressed in relation to the share of foreign teachers and students. This indicator, as one of the main ones in the rating, pulls down all Japanese universities...

what to do?

It seems that in order to increase the number of universities that can enter the world rankings, and generally strengthen the international position of the Japanese education system on the world stage, it is necessary to overcome the "language barrier" in the broad sense of the word.

The fact is that the method of ranking a global profile gives an advantage, first of all, to universities in the English-speaking world, which always have a higher percentage of international students and faculty. Not surprisingly, according to the World University Ranking results for 2013-2014, only 7 of the top 50 universities listed in it were from non-English-speaking countries (the University of Tokyo ranked 2nd among these non-English-speaking universities).¹⁶.

To meet the challenges posed by globalization, Japan clearly needs to open the doors of its universities to more talented researchers and students from abroad. In addition, it is necessary to increase the number of courses that will be taught in English and other foreign languages. It is necessary to send more Japanese researchers and students abroad in order to encourage them to conduct joint international research and improve global educational standards.

Will Japanese reformers be able to solve these problems? So far, there are many obstacles in the way of a solution - from the start time of the academic year in Japanese universities, which the government cannot move from April 1 to September 1, ¹⁷ adopted in most countries of the world, to the content of programs in Japanese universities, which do not help Japanese students to create adequate ideas about foreign countries and peoples ^18,19.

Nor is it encouraging that Japan is experiencing a period of prolonged population aging amid attempts to overcome the economic downturn. In one way or another, spending on maintaining the welfare and health care of Japanese society is taking up an increasingly large part of the state budget. Spending on education, which is already at a low level (by international standards), not only does not increase, but also comes under increasing pressure from supporters of further restrictions and cuts.

There is a high probability that in these difficult conditions, the "freedom" and "competition" that reformers promise to institutions of higher education will lead to increased inequality between universities. It is likely that the state system will support a small number of strong universities and leave a large number of weak ones to their fate. With limited capital expenditures, the declared "freedom" and "competition" may not be sufficient to reform Japan's rigid and hierarchical higher education system and make it more flexible and diverse, responding to the challenges of globalization.

¹ Official website of MEHT: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology - http://www.mext.go.jp/

^{Takayama K.} 2 Is Japanese education the "exception"?: examining the situated articulation of neoliberalism through the analysis of policy keywords // Asia Pacific Journal of Education. Vol. 29, No. 2, June 2009, p. 125 - 142.

^{Amano I.} 3 Globalization and Higher Education Reforms in Japan: The Obstacles to Greater International Competitiveness http://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/a02801/

⁴ is given by: MEXT: Ministry of Education... ⁵ Amano I. Op. cit.

^{Kariya T.} 6 Higher Education and the Japanese Disease -http://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/a00602/

⁷ Ibidem.

⁸ Ibid.

^{Higuchi T.} 9 How should college students' independence be nurtured? // Child Research Net (CRN). Internet-based child research institute in Japan. 13.12.2013 - http://www.childresearch.net/data/school/201301. html

^Yano 10 M.Japan's New Recruits: Victims of the Japanese-Style Family and Japanese-Style Employment // Japan Labor Review. Vol. 10, Winter 2013, p. 62 - 80.

^{Scott P.} 11 Globalizatsiya i universitet [Globalization and the University]. Bulletin of the Higher School. 2000, N 4. pp. 3-8.

¹² is given by: MEHT: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. National University Reform Plan Summary -http://www.mext.go.jp/english/topics/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2014/03/13/1345139_l.pdf

¹³ The World Reputation Rankings - http://www.time-shighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2014/reputation-ranking

¹⁴ World University Rankings 2013 - 2014 - http://www.time-shighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2013 - 14/world-ranking

¹⁵ Asia University Rankings - http://www.timeshigher-education.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2013 - 14/regional-ranking/ region/asia

¹⁶ Ibidem.

¹⁷ The Japan Times. 30.06.2013.

^{Zhilina L. V.} 18 Japan and Russia: ways of forming public opinion about neighboring countries / / Yearbook "Japan 2013", Moscow, AIRO-XXI, 2013, pp. 135-153. (Zhilina L.V. 2013. Yaponiya i Rossiya: puti formirovaniya obschestvennogo mneniya о stranakh-sosedyakh // Yezhegodnik "Yaponiya 2013". M.) (in Russian)

^{Hara Y.} 19 Observation on the Image of Foreign Countries and Impact of Special Events. 16thJAMCO Online International Symposium. January to March, 2007 - http://www.jamco.or.jp/en/symposium/16/6/

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