The COVID-19 outbreak has affected all societies, including universities. In particular, there are concerns that students with financial difficulties will be unable to do part-time jobs due to the pandemic, and that their situation will become more challenging. This study aimed to examine whether financial aid helped improve students' situations and reduce their levels of stress. Data from a national university student web survey conducted in Japan in March 2022 were used in this study. We subdivided the usage of financial aid, examined the actual situation of student life, investigated how students were affected by the pandemic, understood their worries, and examined the ideal form of financial support. Findings revealed that students with financial difficulties tended to use student loans, but those who did not use them due to a lack of information or psychological burden accounted for about 10% of the total sample. Furthermore, a certain percentage of students in low-income brackets also exists. The rate of the usage of grants is fairly low. Both users and potential applicants of student loans suffered considerable financial damage due to the pandemic. Despite student loans and grants, students still experience substantial academic, economic, and psychological anxieties.

 Patent strategy is crucial for universities' pharmaceutical R&D. The university's intellectual property department usually manages its patents. However, in the past, patent management by the Institute for Infectious Diseases at the University of Tokyo was different from that of the modern-day University of Tokyo. The institute had an employee invention regulation in 1930; however, the status of patent applications and management at the institute before and after the end of World War II is not clear. First, to clarify the status of patent applications, old documents related to patents stored at the institute and patent gazettes were examined. These documents revealed that the institute filed patent applications in line with the objectives of its pharmaceutical development and manufacturing business. Next, by analyzing the decision documents related to patent applications of the institute, the authority and cost-sharing at the university were confirmed. Hence, it is argued that patents at the institute were managed in an integrated manner with the development strategy at the institute in charge of pharmaceutical development, and not at the intellectual property headquarters of the university.

 Despite recognizing the importance of implementing new projects for university administrators, not all of them are positive or achieving results. In this study, we addressed the question, “What antecedents and characteristics can be found in the process of implementing new projects by young university administrators?”

 Interviews with 12 young university administrators revealed the following three points. First, it became clear that when new projects are created or assigned, internal and external stakeholders are the “source” of policies, information, and reputation. Second, “collaboration” with various stakeholders in the implementation of new projects was evident, and their opinions were coordinated. In the process of coordination, strategies were used to persuade faculty members, to foster a sense of conviction through reasoning as well as by utilizing the authority of executives to pass the administrators' opinions. Third, individuals' proactivity and customer orientation accelerated their involvement with internal and external stakeholders in the process of implementing new projects.

 The purpose of this exploratory study is to empirically analyze university faculty members' views on the publicness of universities. In this paper, the term “publicness” refers to a broad range of social, economic, and public contributions by universities, as understood in the Japanese context. The study argues that there is a need for more attention and discussion on the normative and democratic roles of universities, and their contributions to “public good.”

 This study used factor analysis to identify two factors that shape faculty members' perceptions of the publicness of universities. The first factor is economic/social orientation, which relates to a wide range of social goods, and is supported by faculty members from various disciplines. The second factor is the civic/public-good orientation, which emphasizes openness, civic participation, and social justice, and is favored by those in the humanities and social sciences.

 Using regression analysis, the study examined the individual and organizational variables that contribute to each of the two factors. The findings show that variables such as professionalism and a culture of belongingness strengthen economic/social orientation, while autonomy and collegial relationships contribute to civic/public-good orientation.

 This study summarizes the limitations of the concept of “reasonable accommodation,” as stipulated in the Act on the Elimination of Disability Discrimination, and discusses how to determine and overcome such limitations in higher education. The Act defines the concept of “discrimination against people with disabilities,” and prohibits higher education institutions (HEI) from discriminating against students with disabilities. Accordingly, HEIs are making progress in supporting students with disabilities and establishing specialized consulting services. However, the duty to make reasonable accommodations is limited to when there is no undue burden to do so. As a result, depending on the schools' financial base, size, and other factors, it is difficult to guarantee that the rights of students with disabilities are fulfilled, especially when their support is costly. Furthermore, students with developmental or mental disabilities may not be eligible for reasonable accommodations because of their difficulty in expressing their intentions. To address these issues, this study suggests that it is important to consider support as a driving force for the promotion of universal education design, emphasize the positive effects of student diversity in universities, and expand social services to lower existing barriers to the implementation of support.

 This study analyzes the determinants of independent-minded learning attitudes in a highly selective liberal arts school. Previous studies have shown that independent-minded learning attitudes are important in determining learning behavior and outcomes, regardless of the field of study or school selectivity. However, the determinants of independent-minded learning attitudes differ depending on school selectivity, and at highly selective universities, teaching methods are more important than course content. Based on this premise, an analysis was conducted at a highly selective liberal arts school, and the results confirmed the relevance of independent-minded learning attitudes on learning behavior and learning outcomes. However, unlike previous studies, this study found that the determinants of the independent-minded learning attitude are not teaching methods such as opportunities to express opinions in class or to participate in group work, but the course content such as the relationship between society and reality, and opportunities to apply theories and knowledge.

 How do non-academic university professionals develop their identities in the workplace while facing organizational changes and difficulties? Due to increasing pressure to meet the needs of the society, higher education professionals are required to cover more diverse and market-oriented work apart from the simple and conventional routine tasks. This paper focuses on transitioning organizational identity to explore how professional staff in higher education in the UK position themselves within the organization and overcome difficulties.

 Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine UK professional staff in the higher education sector, and the interview transcripts were meticulously examined. It was revealed that professional staff in UK higher education have a stabilized resilience system, an “organizational identity rebuilder,” to constantly reconstruct their organizational identity, which allows them to navigate professional difficulties and conflicts.

 This study aimed to clarify the relationship between the establishment of higher education associations and the Bureau of Education in the United States, from the late 1880s to the early 1920s, which has not been previously clarified. For this purpose, after reviewing the number of associations established and the higher education-related initiatives of the bureau, the relationship between individual associations and the bureau was clarified with a focus on nine major associations.

 The results revealed that prior to the 1900s, a relationship was established in which the bureau took advantage of associations to promote its activities, including attendance at annual meetings, requests for cooperation in statistics through addresses, and personal exchanges. In some cases, the initiatives of the associations influenced the bureaus. From the 1910s onward, the relationship developed to the point where the bureau was involved in the associations right from their establishment; departments that were integrated with the associations were established, and the bureau itself led to the establishment of the association. Moreover, differences in the degree of interest between associations were also identified.

 Finally, these facts complement the interpretation of the relationship between the federal government and higher-education associations from the former's perspective, as presented in previous studies.

 It has been pointed out that the research facilities that support universities' research infrastructure are aging. As funding for the development of research facilities shifts from basic expenses to external funds, universities themselves need to secure financial resources in the medium-to long-term. However, national university corporations have not yet been able to retain their financial resources.

 National university corporations have established a new system that allows internal reserves in the accounting system, and in the future, universities will be required to secure financial resources by formulating research infrastructure strategies. Therefore, it is necessary to integrate industry-academia collaboration, financial strategies, and research platform strategies. It is also necessary to have a management cycle in which the financial resources generated by industry-academia collaboration are allocated to the maintenance of research facilities in the medium to long term.

 Since the 2000s, Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) has led several projects to support female researchers. As a result, the percentage of female researchers at national universities has been increasing, but is still low compared to Western countries, with even lower percentages in top positions.

 While previous studies have proposed “compulsory promotion of female researchers to higher positions through quotas” and “organizational reform” as measures to overcome the current situation, few studies have delved deeper into specific methods for “changing the mindset” of male researchers, who constitute the majority of the organization.

 In this study, we interviewed two male researchers who have conducted research activities at U.S. universities and have experienced initiatives that have actually increased the number of female researchers. The results revealed that in U.S. universities, when the majority of male researchers understood that increasing the number of female researchers was beneficial to their organizations and to themselves, their awareness changed, resulting in “organizational change.”

 This study aims to analyze the transformation of discussions over university autonomy during legislative debates in the Diet from the postwar period to the present, with a focus on what issues were discussed and how these issues have changed over time.

 This study revealed that the subject of debate has shifted from government interference in universities (external interference) to interference within universities (internal interference). It also shows that external organizations' interference has become diverse, and that the content of discussions on university autonomy has shifted from personnel intervention by the government to internal management and education research.

 This case study of a recent Japanese university, specifically, a regional national A university, aims to identify how individual university organizations responded to dramatic changes in the external environment. The analysis will focus on two perspectives: “new work” related to educational reform and the reorganization of the center organizations responsible for educational reform work. Based on the literature and interviews with those involved, we will clarify why reorganization of the center organizations was necessary and the process by which they were reorganized. We will confirm: 1) how each organization was established and who its members were, and 2) the kind of tasks performed by the members, the positions they held, and the organizational structure that was used to manage them (work content, members in charge, and organizational structure for promotion). Furthermore, we will organize and discuss the challenges that the parties involved at that time felt when performing their duties in university-wide educational reform-related organizations. Finally, we will summarize the findings and discuss future issues.

 Postwar higher education reform in Japan was driven by complex political dynamics and personal relationships between Japan and the United States. The new Japanese university system, which emerged in 1949, imported many features of the American higher education system. While pre-war Japanese universities did not admit women, all universities became coeducational. New colleges for women were also established. In terms of curricula, the pre-war emphasis on specialized education was replaced by the introduction of general education. The new universities that emerged in postwar Japan differed in character from their pre-war counterparts. However, they caused numerous problems, including student disputes and, in many cases, superficial imitations of the U.S. higher education system. How did an American woman who was familiar with Japanese culture view these post-war Japanese higher education reforms? Dallas Finn stayed in Japan from 1947 to 1954 and published “Reform and Japanese Higher Education” in the academic journal Far Eastern Survey, on November 21, 1951. This paper translates Finn's article into Japanese to clarify how the U.S. evaluated postwar Japanese higher education reform.