Changes in the Social Positioning of Higher Education and the Emergence of New Great Divergence

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to find the relationship between the growth of the Japanese economy and the role of higher education over a very long-term perspective. Using the results of very long-term GDP estimates, it demonstrates that Japan belatedly jumped onto the Great Divergence pointed out by Pomeranz. In addition, these open data show the beginning of the new great divergence in this modern time, and some advanced countries that fail to evolve their socio-economic systems are stagnant so that they cannot grow their economies. The study also identifies the evolution of countries' investment attitudes towards higher education by comparing the history of university establishment in medieval Europe and ancient Japan and the population that has received the equivalent of modern tertiary education. With the adoption of the SDGs at the United Nations Summit, a major challenge for each country is the continuation of sustainable growth. The restraint of economic growth with the sustainability demands has been tormenting the world, as if at the same point as the Great Divergence in the 19th century just before the gradual increase in GDP per capita began. Draw linear predictions from open data on changes in doctorate degree holders per million per capita and GDP per capita in major countries shows that countries with a higher percentage of doctorate degree holders tend to have higher economic growth rates. On the contrary, because the percentage of doctorate degree holders is too low, Japan has not been able to contribute to economic growth.