The circumstances surrounding the financial management of universities constitute an important academic issue that has not yet been clarified. Regarding this issue, this paper addresses three primary findings. First, although many universities have already conducted financial and management analysis to some extent, few directors believe their universities’ efforts are sufficient. In particular, issues related to teaching and learning, such as the appropriate number of classes offered at the university, have rarely been analyzed. Second, it appears that the financial directors’ efforts have far more impact on financial management than in other university systems. The importance of improving the support system of the finance director and communication with the directors in charge of education became clear. Third, research has shown that improving financial analysis and management has a significant effect. However, this effect is limited as is the scope for improving university finances with management efforts alone.

In recent years, university location and invitation policies by local governments have become increasingly important, making it essential to analyze the extent to which local government policies that have been implemented by local governments have influenced the trend of university entrance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the policy of university location and invitation in Chiba Prefecture and analyze the trend of university entrance of high school students in the prefecture.

The analysis results revealed that the number of enrollments in undergraduate schools, which has been increased by the Chiba Prefecture’s policy of university location and invitation, has influenced the trend of university entrance in Chiba prefecture.

This paper discusses the concept of “Guidance and Welfare” for university students in the early postwar years by analyzing the process of the deliberation and its report (1958) on the committee of the Japan University Accreditation Association (JUAA). The concept of “Welfare and Guidance” was discussed and developed as services or affairs for students in the early postwar years. Some previous studies have stressed the importance of the roles of the deliberation and its report from JUAA in terms of “Welfare and Guidance.” Therefore, this paper examines the process of the deliberation and its contexts in the report by the JUAA by relying on primary sources. As a result, this study provides a comprehensive discussion on “Welfare and Guidance” in the JUAA context and reveals the major implications for the diverse backgrounds and roles of student services and affairs.

Internationalization of higher education has dramatically expanded, and transnational academic mobility is one of the key mechanisms through which internationalization occurs. A number of studies have explored the experience of transnational mobility on scientists’ academic output and international collaboration. However, in the case of China, few studies have paid attention to how scientists’ mobility experience in Japan relates to their academic performance and collaboration with colleagues in Japan, although, as a non-English- speaking country, Japan is one of the foremost partners of China in the field of scientific research. This study attempts to explore these relationships by creating an original dataset of Chinese scientists affiliated to Peking University. The results show that the scientists’ experience of a temporary stay in Japan as visiting scholars significantly enhances their publication productivity, h-index, international collaboration, and collaboration with colleagues in Japan. Furthermore, the experience of doctoral study and postdoctoral research also increases the likelihood of collaboration with Japan. The study sheds new light on Chinese scientists’ mobility at different career stages in foreign countries and provides implications for enhancing individual scientists’ academic performance and international collaboration.

This paper discusses the history and characteristics of the enterprises owned by national university corporations (NUCs) in Japan. An incorporated educational institution, which establishes a “private” university, can also set some enterprises (university-owned enterprises) to support the university’s operation. On the other hand, NUCs have limited investment activities under the National University Corporation Act, which allows them to invest in (1) accredited technology licensing offices (TLOs), (2) approved venture capitals (VCs), and (3) enterprises that provide consulting, education, and training services according to the results of research on technology conducted by the incorporated national university (the designated national university only). National university-owned enterprises have played a major role in the achievement of policy goals, and are expected to increase these universities’ income in the future.

National universities in Japan were incorporated in 2004. Before that, these institutions were just branches of the Ministry of Education and their administrative staff comprised civil servants. Fifteen years after the incorporation, it is becoming increasingly important for all national universities to develop their human resource strategies as a juridical public body separated from the central government. This paper examines the changes in human resource management within non-academic departments of Japanese national universities after their incorporation using a framework based on principal-agent theory.

The findings of this study show that the total number of middle managers at non- academic departments has been expanding while those dispatched from the Ministry of Education have not decreased. This implies that national universities have acted on their own strategies while considering government incentives.

This study focuses on the characteristics of financial support policies and funding strategies for graduate students at public universities in the United States, particularly in California. Although support for graduate students at the institution level is a timely and important topic for public research universities in both Japan and the United States, these countries differ significantly in terms of policies and strategies. In the United States, graduate students receive a wide variety of support, including merit-based fellowships, need-based grants, teaching and research assistantships, and other sources. Financial from funding support programs are used in conjunction with institutional and external funds to provide diverse types of support, which can vary based upon factors, such as field of study and targeted degree. In California, for example, in all disciplines, academic doctoral students typically receive net stipends that far exceeds that of professional-degree students. Competition is the most significant factor driving these differences. In this context, financial support for graduate students is an important recruitment tool for research universities. Therefore, at the graduate level, competition-driven, market-based financial support is a critical element for research universities in the United States.

“Excellence” is a key concept in discussions about modern research universities. However, the perception of excellence is ambiguous. The purposes of this paper are to investigate the concept of excellence from a historical perspective and to clarify its ideological roots and trajectory. Previous studies have addressed the concept of excellence only as a subject pertaining to the debate on the education reform in the United States that took place in the 1960s and 1980s. This research presents a new historical perspective on the formation of excellence, which refers to the concept of “excellence” in universities proposed by Frederic Terman. Historical research reveals the hypothesis that excellence is a concept based on “war,” which emerges when international competitiveness is strongly sought. The three periods when the pursuit of excellence became the main theme coincided with the time when international competitiveness was threatened in the United States. International competitiveness has historically meant competitiveness in military technology, that is, a struggle that bets on the survival and dignity of the nation. In this context, the concept of excellence encompasses the search for prominence in academic research and education through university reform in modern society, and its roots are the pursuit of military competitiveness at the Center of Excellence.

In 2015, accounting standards for private universities in Japan were significantly revised, as an amendment has come to require private universities to list specific assets that are important in terms of sustainability. Focusing on these specific assets, this paper examines how many of these assets a private university owns and what kind of managerial action is taken in relation to its assets composition. Then, this paper seeks to understand the scenario as a whole and considers specific assets that ensure financial sustainability.

This research note reports on the decision-making process on the laws and policies of higher education institutions, which have been formulated as part of the Japanese government’s local revitalization policy since 2014.

The study empirically analyzes the decision-making process with reference to previous studies in various fields, such as political science. In the course of policy making, this study focuses on and explains how the expertise gained from higher education research has influenced policy ideas.

Analysis of the content of meetings based on publicly available material, including profiles of conference participants who considered the policy in question, indicated that expertise in higher education research was less influential in policy review meetings. In addition, the outcome of meetings, which considered policy ideas, had limited impact on the final policies. This result is consistent with previous studies that point out that the Japanese decision-making process in the 2010s was led by the Cabinet.

After the regulation of the recruitment system was abolished, job hunting has increased. Has the disparity among universities also increased? This paper examines whether interuniversity inequality has increased in graduate employment since the 1990s. Based on the recruitment data of large companies, Japan’s major universities were divided into three groups for subsequent statistical analysis. The analysis of all industries revealed the emergence of structural changes in 1998 and a reduction in the disparity among universities. In the case of megabanks, the gap between universities narrowed because recruitment was switched to university graduates in the early 1990s.

On the other hand, according to an analysis of leading popular companies, the structural change appeared in 1999 and the disparity among universities began to increase. It is believed that there is a factor in job search in recent years or in the spread of recruitmentrelated internships.