Japan’s ODA for the Development of Higher Education Institutions in Developing Countries: Supporting Leading Universities for Human Resource Development and Knowledge Creation and Diffusion

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter investigates the features and historical trends of Japan’s educational cooperation for developing higher education institutions. From the early years of its Official Development Assistance (ODA), higher education cooperation assistance for developing universities has been one of the pillars of Japan’s ODA. Japan has supported more than 500 higher education institutions in developing countries through technical and financial aid. This chapter presents the historical trends based on four broad periods of change: (1) beginning of higher education cooperation (the 1960s–the mid-1970s), (2) rapid expansion of Japan’s ODA and hitozukuri (human resource development) cooperation (the mid-1970s–the 1980s), (3) making basic education assistance the central focus of educational ODA (the 1990s–the mid-2000s), and (4) diversification of university development cooperation programs under higher education internationalization (from the mid-2000s). Through a chronological analysis, this chapter elucidates four distinctive features of Japan’s ODA in this area, namely, the consistent focus on university development cooperation in Japan’s ODA from its beginning to the present, the strong influence of higher education internationalization after 2000, the emphasis on the development of individual higher education institutions rather than support for policy and system reforms, and long-term support combining technical and financial cooperation. Lastly, the chapter discusses Japanese universities’ participation in higher education assistance and its impacts on their internationalization.KeywordsJapan’s ODAHigher educationUniversity developmentHuman resource developmentInternationalization of higher educationHitozukuriEngineering education Medical educationResearch collaborationODA participation of universities