地域的機能からみた国立大学と大学人

抄録

　 This paper aims to examine the nature of the relationship between the university and the regional community by focusing on discourses about policy on university-community partnerships and, using survey data, on the activities and opinions of faculty members.

　 From the beginning of the postwar era to the present, “university-community” policy has shifted from “local dispersion of institutions and educational opportunity” to “industry-university cooperation” and “lifelong learning. “Four problems remain : 1) policy focuses tend to be blurred, 2) the attitudes and orientations of academics are not sufficiently considered, 3) there has been little discussion or evaluation of the merits and demerits that cooperation with industry may bring to the university as a whole to, and 4) linkages at institutional levels are too much focused on.

　 Considering these four issues, we analyzed empirical data from two surveys. The main findings are as follows. First, expectations of regional community leaders toward the university are rather holistic compared to the areas on which the policies focus. Second, the regional exchange activities of the university have extended to a wide range of areas. In particular, faculty members in the social sciences and in health are positive and active. However, third, “university-community” partnership at present is led mainly by faculty members, and only with attitudes of service and self-sacrifice. Fourth, a lot of faculty members recognize various kinds of obstacles in both the university and the regional community. Fifth, some faculty members have clear and strong interests in combining the traditional mission of teaching and research and the new, challenging activities of cooperating with the regional community. This kind of integration and reciprocality may imply the emergence of a new domain of research mode, the so-called “Mode II.”

　 According to these findings, whether or not the development of “university-community” partnership diversifies the university or brings the university a new source of energy depends on both the consideration of incentives for academics and appreciation by university of a new, reciprocal mode of research done in cooperation with the regional community.