A Prospect for the Universalization of Higher Education

Abstract

　 The University Council Report in October 1998, entitled “A Vision for Universities in the 21st Century and Reform Measures,” proposes comprehensive and practical reform measures in accordance with the following four philosophies : 1) qualitative enhancement of education and research ; 2) more flexible higher education systems ; 3) improvement of administrative structure to facilitate responsible decision-making ; 4) continuous improvement of education and research by establishing an evaluation system for institutions.

　 This report is very important for the prospect of universal higher education. In this paper we examine the contents of this report from a point of reference which focuses on the factor of determinants in growing higher education and discuss the problems of current higher education studies.

　 First, even though the determinants of individual demand for higher education are closely related to the three basic policy issues : internal efficiency, external efficiency, and equality, the relationship between individual demand and reform measures is not clearly presented in the council report and such studies are still limited in number. Secondly, as the current higher education system is confronted with three crises : quantity, quality and finance, the efficiency and equality of higher education should be discussed with consideration to the reform of the funding system in higher education, including both public and private universities. Unfortunately, this funding reform is not included in the four philosophies of the report, main concern of which, especially in the third and fourth philosophies, is placed on national universities. Finally, as the moving of Japanese higher education to universal higher education from mass higher education is expected to play an important role in the effort to lead the development of a knowledge-intensive society, our research society needs to contribute toward providing policy implications by means of higher education studies scrutinized through empirical analyses.