証拠に基づく大学政策の推進の実態と課題

—国立大学法人改革における研究力向上策を中心にして—

抄録

The Japanese government has promoted evidence-based policy and management in the public sector. Higher education is placed in a crucial area in economic growth strategy.

The Abe administration intends to encourage innovation through university reforms. It presumes that strengthening university research will enhance the competition among universities and contribute to economic growth and improved social life. The policy assumes that both resource allocation for the targeted group and competition within the group would increase its position in world university rankings. The ranking is used as a key performance indicator of evidence in research performance. Given the logic and evidence, we analyze the relationship between resource allocation and research activities, like publications and citations, in the case of Japanese national universities. However, the findings are inconsistent with the story of evidence-based policy. Neither resource allocation policy for targeted universities nor areas significantly contributes to promoting research activities. It shows reforming national universities could not be considered evidence-based policy for higher education.