On the Activity of Staff Development (SD) in Japan

Some Proposals to Set Programsand to Plan the Curriculum

Abstract

　 In the face of the continuing decrease in the eighteen-year old population and the political and social demands of university reform, the need for and the importance of Staff Development (SD) have been increasingly recognized. Despite this recognition, however, there are many unresolved issues concerning SD, including the questions of how opinions and interest related to SD emerged in contemporary Japan, how effective SD programs to train managerial and business staff in universities can be realized, and how a systematic curriculum can be formulated. In this paper, the author takes up 5 stages of SD as currently realized in Japanese universities, and examines the merits and demerits of each stage. He identifies the minimum essential SD learning items as knowledge and understanding of the university system and of one’s own university as well as of higher education policy. Adopting the perspective that it may well be possible to locate the objectives of SD within the framework of training in planning ability, the author asks whether it might not be necessary to tailor SD programs to a staff member’s life stage. He also argues for the desirability of merging FD with SD, as is done in the British system, and evaluates the various traditional ways of implementing SD in Japan. Finally, he makes some suggestions concerning the topic of how to create personnel training courses for staff members while maintaining the integrity of their professional ability.