Japanese National Universities Research Articles

Fractal dimension analogous scale-invariant derivative of Hirsch\u2019s index

We propose a scale-invariant derivative of the h-index as “h-dimension”, which is analogous to the fractal dimension of the h-index for institutional performance analysis. The design of h-dimension comes from the self-similar characteristics of the citation structure. We applied this h-dimension to data of 134 Japanese national universities and research institutes, and found well-performing medium-sized research institutes, where we identified multiple organizations related to natural disasters. This result is reasonable considering that Japan is frequently hit by earthquakes, typhoons, volcanoes and other natural disasters. However, these characteristic institutes are screened by larger universities if we depend on the existing h-index. The scale-invariant property of the proposed method helps to understand the nature of academic activities, which must promote fair and objective evaluation of research activities to maximize intellectual, and eventually economic opportunity.

Toward the Construction of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) in Japanese National Universities: A Preliminary Study Focusing on Personnel Changes in Administrative Officers after Incorporation

Toward the Construction of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) in Japanese National Universities: A Preliminary Study Focusing on Personnel Changes in Administrative Officers after Incorporation

International Students in Japanese National Universities: Their Motivations, Experiences and Outcomes

International Students in Japanese National Universities: Their Motivations, Experiences and Outcomes

Investigating the technical efficiency of Japanese national universities following corporatization: a two-stage data envelopment analysis approach

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to measure the technical efficiency of Japanese national universities over the period 2010–2016. In addition, the authors also sought to identify the determinants of efficiency, especially those amenable to public policy intervention.Design/methodology/approachFirst, the authors ran a global intertemporal data envelopment analysis to understand the trends in efficiency for national universities over the relevant period. Following this, the authors conducted a second-stage regression using a double-bootstrapped truncated regression model to identify the possible determinants of efficiency.FindingsThe authors found no evidence to suggest that technical efficiency of national universities systematically decreased or increased in response to either structural reform or a reduction to government grants. Moreover, the share of government grants, the size of universities and disciplines of study offered by the universities were statistically significant determinants of efficiency.Practical implicationsThe study results suggest that efficacious public policy remedies might include inter alia measures to reduce the reliance on public funding, efforts to attract more foreign students, the execution of mergers among small universities and consolidation of inefficient departments.Originality/valueThis research fills an important gap in the scholarly literature with respect to Japanese national universities and identifies possible determinants to efficiency, which are amenable to remedial public policy interventions.

Impact of university reform on research performance aggregated and disaggregated across research fields: a case study of the partial privatization of Japanese national universities

This study quantitatively estimates the impacts of the partial privatization of Japanese national universities (as implemented in 2004) on research performance outcomes, which are aggregated and disaggregated across research fields. Japanese private universities can be viewed as counterfactuals not targeted by the reform for the same period, which provides within-country variations in this governance/managerial change. Difference-in-differences estimation strategies using private universities as control groups show that the partial privatization of national universities has resulted in a deterioration in the quality and quantity of national universities’ research output, as constructed using publication records from 1999 to 2009. The study then estimates the effects of partial privatization disaggregated by research field and finds that only medical science is negatively affected by the partial privatization. This study is the first to provide a quantitative assessment of whether the partial privatization of Japanese universities has been favorable for research performance using an identification strategy based on a quasi-experiment. It also reveals the heterogeneous impacts across research fields and departments.

A Questionnaire Survey on Teaching of Patient Safety Topics to Medical Students in Japanese National Universities

A Questionnaire Survey on Teaching of Patient Safety Topics to Medical Students in Japanese National Universities

Practice and Enlightenment of General Education Reform in Japanese National Universities after World War II

Practice and Enlightenment of General Education Reform in Japanese National Universities after World War II

Career Paths and Skill Improvement of Gijutsu-shokuin (Technical Staffs) in Japanese National Universities

Career Paths and Skill Improvement of Gijutsu-shokuin (Technical Staffs) in Japanese National Universities

Assessing the Performance of Japanese Major Universities through the Research Funding System

This article reports on the performance of the research funding system of 61 Japanese national universities, specifically the Japanese Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (GASR) system. The competitive Japanese research funding system is quantitatively investigated and measured, focusing on the GASR fund and its relationship with the Japanese Science and Technology Basic Plans by applying mathematical modeling techniques. The paper proposes future policy recommendations to improve what aspect of the Japanese competitive research funding system.

THE DIVERSE AND INTEGRATIVE NATURE OF PRODUCT DESIGN CURRICULUM (I)

The aim of this research is to clarify the emphasis on diverse and integrative nature of product design curriculums at undergraduate level. A comparative study was done through a collection of the relevant documents and publications from nine sample Japanese national and public universities. From the findings, it was understood that the diverse and integrative emphasis in the product design curriculums differed among the sample universities. It appeared that two main points may be presented. 1) product design programmes in art oriented faculties seemed to have a higher emphasis on the study of integrative subjects, where platforms for synthesis of knowledge and skills are offered. 2) product design programmes in design and engineering oriented faculties seemed to favor a more diverse and flexibility study of product design through a higher emphasis of elective professional education subjects. While it was proposed that product design curriculums should continue to the focus providing fundamental professional knowledge and skills in professional education, ample opportunities for the synthesis of knowledge and skills should be provided in the curriculum so that qualities like inventiveness, sensitivity and critical thinking skill may be further nurtured and developed.

Admissions in Japanese National Universities: The Need for Change

Higher education institutions have undergone significant changes concerning college admissions. Leading countries for higher education, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as countries in Asia such as China, Korea, and Taiwan are making changes to their higher education systems. There is also a call for change in college admissions in Japan. Japanese universities, especially national universities, have heavily relied on test scores for student selection. However, universities are currently shifting theircollege admissions processes toward a holistic review approach. This involves making admission decisions by assessing not only academic achievements, but also students’ backgrounds, personal experience, and potential. This task was initiated by the government in response to the changing concepts of knowledge and fairness, as well as the perceived desirability of attracting students with diverse educational backgrounds. For higher education institutions both in Japan and abroad, college admission reforms become a necessary process. Japan, where the government has the most power for making decisions, offers other countriespriceless lessons about how top-down education/admission reforms are implemented or impeded.

Admissions in Japanese National Universities: The Need for Change

Higher education institutions have undergone significant changes concerning college admissions. Leading countries for higher education, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as countries in Asia such as China, Korea, and Taiwan are making changes to their higher education systems. There is also a call for change in college admissions in Japan. Japanese universities, especially national universities, have heavily relied on test scores for student selection. However, universities are currently shifting theircollege admissions processes toward a holistic review approach. This involves making admission decisions by assessing not only academic achievements, but also students’ backgrounds, personal experience, and potential. This task was initiated by the government in response to the changing concepts of knowledge and fairness, as well as the perceived desirability of attracting students with diverse educational backgrounds. For higher education institutions both in Japan and abroad, college admission reforms become a necessary process. Japan, where the government has the most power for making decisions, offers other countriespriceless lessons about how top-down education/admission reforms are implemented or impeded.

Improving Industry- University R and D Project Management: A Pilot Study

In April 2004, a new law turned Japanese national universities into independent public corporations. This change has increased pressure on them to look to industry for more support than ever before. Since one of the laboratories in Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology’s (JAIST’s) School of Materials Science is involved in a collaborative project with two industrial partners (one large and one small), we saw an excellent opportunity to conduct a pilot study on an industry-university knowledge partnership for a scientific research and development project in the Japanese national university setting. The purpose of our study is to identify both which areas and considerations have the most influence on such projects and how such projects can be improved. This paper presents our methodology and data results. Most importantly, it presents a list of specific suggestions for improving project performance. Although it was a pilot study with a small number of respondents, this study still may have significance in terms of the suggestions for improving collaborative projects and in regard to the data-gathering methodology we used. We planned to provide results of the study to the project team members and recommend they apply the most important suggestions for improving their project. We also planned to do a follow-up study to determine whether or not the project is improved by the implementation of these key suggestions.

The Impact of University Reform on Research Performance: A Case Study of the Partial Privatization of Japanese National Universities

This paper examines causal effects of university reform on research performance. Specifically, I investigate the effect of the partial privatization of Japanese national universities since 2004. This entailed university governance reform that introduced/magnified the concept of independent institutional management and intensified the degree of accountability in the operation of national universities. The reform induced a shift from large-scale public funding to university dependence on their own revenues and external research grants. For the field of medical science, the university reform decreased the research performance. However, the reform increased the research performance for the field of engineering and economics.

The merger of departments across universities: The case of veterinary schools in Japanese national universities

With the rise of neoliberalism, institutional mergers are often discussed and carried out in higher education. Among merger cases, this paper will focus on the departmental mergers across universities that have not been discussed. To discuss departmental mergers, the paper will pick up the case of the merger of departments of veterinary medicine in Japan. It will reveal many issues surrounding departmental mergers and veterinary medicine; universities’ control of budgets and personnel, faculty members’ academic interest, the switch to practical training because of changing social needs, professional associations’ and local communities’ influence as stakeholders, the stronger autonomy of the university than the power of the Ministry of Education (after 2001, the MEXT: the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology), and international standards of veterinary medicine. The merger attempts led to joint undergraduate degree programs, in which two departments were combined but each remained in its original university. This partially addressed issues of size and clinical training. It can be called another type of merger. From the perspective of educational development, the case has many implications for the reorganization of the existing departments of veterinary medicine in Asia, most of which are smaller in size than their American counterparts. It is also significant to the departments of other disciplines, that are struggling to improve their standings because of their small size.

Characteristics and Risk Factors for Negative Academic Events: A 27-Year Serial Prevalence Study of 9.7 Million Japanese College Students.

To examine the prevalence of and the factors contributing to leaves of absence and school discontinuation in Japanese college students over a 27-year period. Trends in these academic events over time were assessed, and students at elevated risk and psychosocial difficulties in need of supportive intervention were identified. Surveys were collected from the majority of Japanese national universities between 1985 and 2012, yielding data on a total of 9.7 million Japanese university students. Each year, data collected included the number of students enrolled at a university and the number of students who discontinued school and took leaves of absence. The reasons for these academic events were also collected in the surveys. We found that instances of these academic events have become prevalent over the past decades among Japanese university students. The rates of leaves of absence and school discontinuation for men were consistently higher than that for women throughout the study. Negative reasons such as apathetic state were the dominant reason for these academic events. Males, especially in 4-year programs (liberal arts and sciences), were more likely to have negative events due to negative reasons such as apathetic state. These students were not diagnosed psychiatrically. The population of students at elevated risk should receive psychosocial interventions and be provided mental health support.

Apathetic and withdrawing students in Japanese universities--with regard to Hikikomori and student apathy.

In recent years, the increasing number of young people withdrawing from society, so called Hikikomori, has been a cause for concern in Japan. These are people who stay at home and do not work or attend school for more than 6 months. Most of them are not regarded as having any psychotic illness such as schizophrenia. With respect to college students, "student apathy" syndrome has been discussed since the 1960's. To evaluate the proportion of apathetic and withdrawing students among those who leave school, take off, or repeat academic years; to see how these situations have changed in the last 20 years; and to identify the characteristics of such high risk groups so as to provide them with effective psychiatric support services. First I examined the mean rates of the academic events mentioned above among students of Japanese national universities. I then compared those rates statistically between males and females, and among 6 groups according to gender and academic majors. Then the reasons for those academic events were examined. The rates of each event have continually increased over the last 21 years, and a considerable number of the students were shown to have been in a state of "student apathy." Male 4-year course students had a high risk, especially male science course students had serious problems.

Perceptions of dental students in Japanese national universities about studying abroad.

Dental faculties in Japan have organised many short-term international exchange programs to enable their undergraduates to study abroad. However, not many students apply for those programs. In this present study, we attempted to clarify the factors that discourage undergraduate dental students from studying abroad. We administered a questionnaire survey to 512 undergraduate dental students in three national universities located in different areas in Japan. Although 61.7% of the participants expressed interest in studying abroad, only 19.1% of them had prior experiences of study abroad or plans to do so. Their main worries were about lack of sufficient language ability in academic fields. Comparing those who were interested in studying abroad with those who were not revealed significant differences regarding their concern about lack of language ability and lack of specialised knowledge in dentistry. Participants who did not want to study abroad indicated that they did not perceive a purpose in doing so and cited not having foreign friends as a problem. Household income was significantly correlated with concerns about overall expenses. Overall, language ability and academic knowledge appeared to be the two strongest factors affecting dental students' consideration of studying abroad. Dental schools in Japan can use the findings of this study to improve their undergraduate exchange programs in such a way as to stimulate greater interest amongst their students.

The present state of lab safety education for international graduate students in Japanese National Universities and its implications

The present state of lab safety education for international graduate students in Japanese National Universities and its implications

The Faculty Salary System in Japanese National Universities

The Faculty Salary System in Japanese National Universities