Challenges Facing Higher Education Research and the Functions of University Administrators

Abstract

　 This paper attempts to make a meta-evaluation of hitherto existing studies of university administrators and their functions, a field of study that has achieved prominence in recent years, identifying, as higher education research topics, issues related to this field, and locating these within a structured framework. The paper points out that, within the context of the development of the modern Japanese university system, three kinds of structures have arisen, namely a differential structure dividing core executive officers in the form of bureaucrats from university-appointed staff, a two-level structure dividing university administrative staff and Ministry of Education officials, and a dual-element structure comprising university presidents on the one hand and the heads of university secretariats on the other.

　 Following the campus strife of the 1960s, proposals made within the context of the democratization of university administration with the aim of overcoming the third of these structural dualities, namely the dual-element structure referred to above proved incapable of realization. Further, against the background of the 1990s, typified by such factors as the declining birthrate, the study of private university administrators made its appearance as an issue, while on the other hand, the study of national university administrators began to be developed on the basis of the findings of the report made by the University Council in 1998.　 However, problems that have been identified with regard to the study of national university administrators include the fact that on the one hand, it has emphasized expansion of the roles of administrators and enhanced specialization on the basis of an antagonistic schema that pits educational staff against administrators, while on the other hand, it has failed to take account of the organizational structure of national university administrative personnel. This paper identifies both research-oriented issues aimed at the development of research on university administrators, and issues related to the study of university administrators aimed at the development of higher education research.