The movement toward performance reporting by higher education institutions (HEIs) has spread internationally, spurred by the need for universities to ensure quality in teaching and research and to disclose their information in order to have public accountability for society and taxpayers. At present, the type of information disclosed is largely financial or related to accounting. Therefore, this paper, focusing on the financial information of HEIs in Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom, explores the conditions that are necessary to satisfy the needs of information users. Also, the paper adopts a conceptual framework for financial reporting to examine the extent to which current financial information meets these conditions. The empirical results show that the practices in the university sector of the three countries do not always meet the six qualitative characteristics provided by the conceptual framework due to the specific organizational nature of HEIs.

In this paper, we demonstrate that graduate students received higher salaries than undergraduates in Japan, using a large data sample. In addition, we show that graduate students have a more successful university educational experience, assess the validity of university education higher, and invest in self-learning after graduation from university or graduate school more than undergraduate students. Further, we indicate that successful university educational experience, assessing the validity of university education higher, and investing in self-learning aftergraduation partially contribute to raising their earnings.

This paper clarifies how “ welfare and guidance ” for college students were discussed and defined in the early postwar years. I analyzed the discussion process in the Student Welfare Council, which was formed in MEXT. After World War II, welfare and guidance were implemented through a variety of measures until the 1950s. Previous studies have pointed out that the systematic definition and content of welfare and guidance appeared for the first time in a report by the Student Welfare Council in 1958. Since then, this framework has long been the model for student affairs at Japanese universities. In this paper, I examined the process of deliberation in the “joint working group of welfare and guidance” by analyzing the minutes of the Council. These primary sources are examined for the first time in this paper.

There were three main findings: (1) the classification and standardization of welfare and guidance contributed to the clarification of those activities; (2) the categories of welfare and guidance gradually expanded and diversified; and (3) the final report reflected each university’s activities through members of the working group, who were deeply involved in the contexts and realities of welfare and guidance.

The curriculum in humanities departments is characterized by the belief that the overall integrity may be ensured by positioning the graduation thesis at the center of the curriculum, even though the curriculum is not seen to be “systematic.” At the same time, there are currently movements that are seeking to revamp the humanities curriculum. How do humanities departments at Japanese universities position the graduation thesis within their curriculum and what meaning do they give to the thesis from the perspective of educational outcomes? This study highlights the following two points in response these questions.

First, the results of a survey conducted in November 2011 among humanities departments across Japan indicated that, although the graduation thesis plays an important role in the undergraduate curriculum, its significance has become ambiguous. Second, we conducted a questionnaire survey between January and February 2013 among graduates of the Faculty of Arts at Gakushuin University and used the instrumental variables method to estimate the subjective effects obtained from the experience of writing a graduation thesis. The results indicated that students who wrote a graduation thesis felt that the experience did not have an effect on improving their subjective assessment of their abilities, such as the skills related to their current job. However, specialized education in the Faculty of Arts as represented through the experience of writing a graduation thesis may have the effect of improving the subjective assessment of the richness of students’ emotion or spirit.

The remaining tasks include explaining the changes in the status of the graduation thesis in the curriculum since the 1990s and responding to the question of whether the experience of writing a graduation thesis has the expected effect.

The decision-making mechanism at incorporated educational institutions (IEI) in Japan comprises two organs: the board of directors (BD) and the board of councilors (BC). According to a principle in the Private Schools Act, the BD makes decisions and the BC offers consultation. However, the law permits some flexibility. It allows individual IEIs to stipulate in their articles of endowment that matters for BC consultation require not only consultation but also a resolution of the BC. This complicates the relationship between the BD and the BC in terms of decision-making in IEI management. By analyzing the contents of endowment for all 540 IEIs that were operating universities in fiscal 2008, this paper seeks to clarify the relationship between the BD and the BC in decision-making at such IEIs, and thereby to gain an overall picture of how frameworks for decision-making in private university management are formulated today.

The ratio of students who go on to the university is increasing, and the university entrance exam is no longer adequate to ensure students’ academic ability. Therefore, it is necessary for universities to ensure student learning outcomes at graduation. Based on this background, this paper aims to investigate the factors that influence student learning outcomes at graduation by focusing on achievement types. The study consisted of a survey in which the data of 715 students from 15 universities were collected between July and August 2011. The results showed the following. First, the achievement types gained in the first and second years were related to student learning outcomes at graduation. Second, in particular, the achievement type gained in the first year was the most relevant. Therefore, it is recommended that faculty should give special lectures during vacation periods and that staff should provide appropriate support for students with lower academic performance in every academic year.

The regulation of the recruitment system was abolished in 1997. Initiated at the beginning of 1953, this agreement signed between university groups and industry groups lasted for about 45 years. However, it did not function well from a historical point of view and was revised many times. At present, while industry groups have an ethics charter, university groups have an agreement, and both hold a position of mutual respect. In this paper, the regulation of the recruitment system is analyzed through institutional theory. Although there are several theories to institutional theory, the idea of “ transaction cost theory” is considered the most suitable. After explaining the merits and demerits of the regulation of the recruitment system from the perspective of transaction cost theory, we provide some perspectives on how to improve the students’ transition from the university to the labor market.

The independent college is a new type of higher education institution established by public universities through the use of private funds in China. Due to these institutions’ high tuition fees and low admission standards, their students are generally considered to be very well-off, with low academic achievement. However, over the past ten years, many policies have been changed, and some new trends have emerged in independent colleges. Can we still say that the students at these institutions come from wealthy families and have low academic achievement? What is the difference between the new incoming students at independent colleges and those at their parent universities? This paper examines these questions by comparing students from both types of institutions.