In Japan, university admissions are shifting toward a more comprehensive, multidimensional evaluation. With this shift comes the challenge of how universities ensure accountability, including concerns about academic quality and fairness.

 Therefore, this study examines how the University of California (UC) has ensured accountability in using Comprehensive Review as an admissions selection method since its systemwide implementation in 2002. The analysis includes whether the selection outcomes have met the university's goals and whether UC has addressed concerns related to the Comprehensive Review.

 UC has explained this primarily from three perspectives: “ensuring academic quality and future success,” “ensuring diversity,” and “ensuring procedural fairness.” With respect to academic quality, future success, and diversity, UC has consistently collected and analyzed data, such as high school grade point average (GPA), first-year GPA, retention rates, graduation rates, and student demographics, and has quantitatively demonstrated that the outcomes are desirable. With respect to fairness, each campus provides detailed explanations of the Comprehensive Review process to enhance transparency, promotes consistency through quality-control measures such as “third read” and “norming,” and works to maintain reader quality. Qualitative reports on these measures further reinforce accountability.

 This study examines the intersection between student loans and financial education in Japan by focusing on the disparities in financial literacy and the effects of educational experiences. Amid rising university tuition and the reliance on student loans, financial literacy has become more important in long-term repayment planning. Using survey data from young adults, this study analyzes how household income, student loan usage, and financial education are associated with financial literacy.

 The study revealed three main findings. First, access to financial education varies according to household income and loan status. Second, financial literacy levels vary across income groups and between student loan users and no-users. Notably, low-income student loan recipients demonstrate relatively high literacy scores. Third, the effects of financial education differ according to income and loan status, with a synergistic effect observed between low- and middle-income loan users. Although causal relationships cannot be established, the results suggest that socioeconomic background shapes access to financial education and the formation of financial literacy. This study highlights the need for targeted and sustained financial education policies, particularly for economically disadvantaged borrowers.

 The NSF ADVANCE program (ADVANCE) is the flagship initiative for the advancement of women faculty in the United States and represents a large institutional grant that differs from earlier small-scale individual grants. ADVANCE was established in 2001, at a time when backlash against affirmative action was intensifying. The author analyzes this puzzle using John W. Kingdon's multiple streams framework to elucidate the multilayered process of its formation. Based on interviews with policy elites and an examination of public documents, the formation of ADVANCE can be explained as follows. Within the NSF, long-term data-informed discussions aimed at addressing the underrepresentation of women in academia were conducted, accompanied by internal softening-up processes. In the late 1990s, when the problem and political windows opened, policy entrepreneurs coupled the three streams, refined proposals, and moved them onto the decision agenda. By applying the multiple streams framework, this article discusses the proactive features of policy entrepreneurs at the NSF, such as reframing the issue to circumvent opposition and fostering frequent discussions across the organization. The study also highlights that policy entrepreneurs at the NSF remained committed to addressing structural gender inequality even as they adjusted their strategies.

 In recent years, Japanese higher education has increasingly drawn on U.S. models to reform academic writing instruction. However, these reforms often lack rigorous historical understanding of the field. In this paper, I explore the historiography of Rhetoric and Composition Studies in the United States from the mid-20th century to 2025, focusing on historians' interpretations of the “Harvard Narrative,” a seminal historical framework originating from Albert Kitzhaber's 1953 dissertation. The paper categorizes this historiographical reception into three distinct phases: the Traditional Period (up to the mid-1980s), the First-Wave Revisionist Period (mid-1980s to early 2000s), and the Second-Wave Revisionist Period (late 2000s to the present). The analysis reveals that first-wave revisionists sought to “rewrite” the “Harvard Narrative” to enhance its theoretical robustness, whereas second-wave revisionists have shifted toward “adding” marginalized voices through local and micro-histories. Although this expansion successfully recovered the experiences of minority groups and non-elite institutions, it also led to pronounced fragmentation of the field and stagnation in critical reevaluation of the dominant narrative itself. As a way forward, I suggest integrating perspectives from the history of higher education to investigate “regional networks” of pedagogical influence.

 This paper examines the deliberation process concerning the “Purpose and Character of Universities” in the 1963 Report of the Central Council for Education “On the Improvement of University Education” (the “1963 Report”). Primary sources were used to analyze how the improvement of the postwar university system was envisioned.

 Following the postwar educational reforms, various types of prewar higher education institutions were unified into a single “new-system university.” However, this institutional uniformity has led to functional issues owing to the underlying differences between the original institutions. In response, the deliberations for the 1963 Report proposed a “differentiation” (typology) scheme that organized higher education into three levels (Graduate School, University Faculty, and Junior College) and three corresponding categories: (Graduate School University, University, and Junior College).

 A key finding is that Prof. Tatsuo Morito, the chair of the committee, drew on the United States model to define the four-year university as a “College” and the graduate school-centered institution as a “University” (the “true” university), thereby seeking to shift traditional Japanese perceptions of higher education. This differentiation scheme was not merely a revival of the pre-war system or a response to industrial demands. Rather, it represented an attempt to transition from a traditional elite model of academic research institutions to a new mass higher education model of universities as social institutions.

 Academic freedom is a universal value that transcends national borders and forms the foundation of free thought, scholarly research, and democratic societies.

 However, since the beginning of the 21st century, violations of academic freedom have proliferated worldwide in both authoritarian and democratic states.

 In April 2024, the United Nations published the “Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom,” which outlines the principles to protect academic freedom. Accordingly, International efforts are underway to denounce violations of academic freedom and advance its safeguarding.

 International declarations and recommendations, including the 1997 Recommendation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization concerning the Status of Higher Education Teaching Personnel, position university autonomy and shared governance as crucial mechanisms. However, the spread of corporate university governance, increase in part-time and fixed-term faculty, and limitations of shared governance that relies on tenure-track faculty have become apparent. The situation in Japan is identical. Therefore, using examples from Canada and the United States, this paper aims to clarify that collective bargaining agreements in higher education serve as a mechanism for safeguarding academic freedom alongside shared governance. Moreover, this study aims to present a new perspective on Japanese higher education research and practice and simultaneously investigate the reason this mechanism has received little attention in Japan.

 This study examines the career decision-making processes of Japanese Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics doctoral graduates who earned their PhDs in the U.S. The study focuses on choices related to geographic mobility and employment. Utilizing semi-structured interviews with 31 graduates, this study adopts an agency perspective to analyze how individuals navigate structural constraints and opportunities across the Japan–U.S. context. Participants were categorized into the following four groups based on the timing of their return and the strength of settlement intention: fresh returnees, advanced returnees, hesitant stayers, and resolute stayers. The findings indicate that decisions about returning to Japan and choosing between academic and non-academic careers are interrelated yet not mechanically determined. Moreover, institutional factors, such as limited tenure-track positions in Japan, visa restrictions in the U.S., industry demand in engineering, and gendered expectations regarding family responsibilities, shaped career trajectories. However, graduates exercised agency by strategically assessing their skills, networks, and preferred working conditions. Professional experience before doctoral enrolment further influenced expectations of workplace stability and compensation. This study contributes to the literature by integrating mobility and sector choice within a single analytical framework and by providing a context-sensitive account of how agency operates within the distinctive institutional configuration of the Japan–U.S. academic relationship.

 This study aimed to demonstrate the usefulness of Bernstein's sociological theory of pedagogy in research on higher education reforms. Although government-led university reforms are often assumed to have little or even undesirable effects on teaching and learning, accumulating empirical evidence supporting this assumption is challenging. This difficulty is attributed to the effects of educational reform transforming within the institutional context of higher education. However, a theoretical framework capable of capturing this transformation is lacking. Suitably, Bernstein's sociological theory of pedagogy offers a perspective that links the micro and macro levels by focusing on the process through which power is translated from the macro to the micro level. This perspective enables researchers to connect changes observed in teaching and learning settings with the power relationships embedded in the discursive and knowledge-producing arenas of higher education reform.

 This study analyzes the financial sustainability of Japanese public university corporations in a challenging environment characterized by a declining population and fiscal constraints. Utilizing Resource Dependence Theory, this study examines the “dependency,” “autonomy,” and “rigidity” of financial structures and their impact on financial sustainability. Using financial statements from 2004 to 2022, linear mixed models were applied to estimate growth trajectories over six-year medium-term goal periods, while categorizing universities based on the presence of affiliated hospitals. The results reveal that corporations without hospitals exhibit a high dependency on public funds and structural rigidity due to personnel costs. Furthermore, the linear mixed model analysis indicates a structural decline in ordinary income margins over time for these institutions. Conversely, corporations with hospitals show superficial stability; however, their financial risks may be inconspicuous owing to large-scale hospital operations. The study concludes that many public universities face a crisis of financial sustainability, characterized by “structural deterioration” where revenue diversification has not sufficiently progressed to offset rising costs.

 This study examines how university administrative staff handle non-routine work by focusing on the strategies they use and their perceived effectiveness. Using data from a nationwide survey of university administrative staff in Japan, this study analyzes eight specific strategies used in both improvement-oriented and newly initiated work. This study uses job crafting theory, specifically its task, relational, and cognitive boundaries, as a framework to organize and interpret these practices.

 The findings show that relational strategies such as persuading senior administrators, coordinating with faculty members, and negotiating with other departments, are widely used. These strategies are particularly effective for newly initiated studies. The results also reveal differences between job positions, which suggests that the strategic focus changes depending on an individual's position in the organizational hierarchy.

 These results highlight the unique nature of nonroutine work in universities, where boundary spanning (working across different departments) and coordination are essential. Overall, this study provides empirical evidence of how university administrative staff work, thereby offering foundational insights into the dynamics of their roles.

 In the Chinese higher education system, XueKe is an important concept for implementing national policies. However, the lack of explanation from a comparative perspective creates barriers in terms of understanding the higher education policies of China. Accordingly, this study examines XueKe in the context of policy to clarify its role in shaping higher education strategies and institutional operations.

 The study findings indicate that the central government uses the XueKe classification catalogue to standardize the establishment of degree programs and quality assurance. Moreover, the government pursues strategic goals, such as enhancing research capacity and aligning with national development, through XueKe-based funding schemes and evaluations. Although universities adjust their research focus in response to these central government-led initiatives to secure resources and improve rankings, they also maintain autonomy in structuring their internal educational organizations. Ultimately, XueKe functions as an indispensable bridge between national strategic practices and institutional practices. This dual mechanism of centralized standardization and university diversity is unique to the Chinese higher education system.

 This study aims to clarify the characteristics and challenges of Sukima-Gyomu, which are informal unassigned tasks that emerge at the boundaries between departments in administrative organizations of Japanese universities. Although these organizations operate within highly specialized and bureaucratic structures, such a division of labor often leads to siloization, fragmented responsibility, and tasks that cannot be fully addressed through existing job allocations. Accordingly, this study analyzes how frontline staff cognitively interpret and respond to coordination tasks by using an inductive qualitative analytical approach based on semi-structured interviews with six full-time staff members across seven cases. The findings identified ten conceptual categories. Interstitial work arises as sudden and ambiguous tasks shaped by psychological boundaries between departments and faculty and are often managed through individualized judgments — “whoever can handle it does so.” Although this enables flexible responses, it also risks uneven workload distribution and organizational neglect.

 Two key challenges were identified: siloization rooted in departmental subcultures and increasing role ambiguity in coordination functions amid the growth of non-regular staff. Further research should explore coordination processes from multiple perspectives to consider systematic organizational support.

 This paper examines the practice of defending academic freedom by university professors, focusing on an individual's internal world of meaning as a motivating factor. The study analyses the words and actions of Shigeru Nanbara, the first president of the University of Tokyo, under the new system.

 After the postwar reversal led to the emergence of a government-dominant power relationship, the defense practices of Nanbara shifted from offense to defense. However, this did not signify an ideological conversion due to systemic changes. For Nanbara, the practice of defending scholarship was underpinned by a multi-layered worldview that integrated Christianity with German political philosophy. For him, academic freedom was an indispensable principle in ordering society.

 However, by limiting the bearers of university autonomy to professorial classes and failing to recognize students and staff as participants in university self-governance, his approach proved inadequate in responding to the massification of higher education.

 Professional and vocational universities and junior colleges were introduced in Japan in 2019, thereby emphasizing practice-oriented vocational education centered on professors of practice. However, some institutions face financial and managerial challenges, including under-enrolment. Therefore, this study examines the financial conditions of Japanese-incorporated educational institutions operating as private professional and vocational universities, junior colleges, and professional and vocational departments. The study utilized publicly available financial statements for the fiscal years 2023 and 2024. Financial conditions were categorized based on Fukuyama's (2022) method of combining financial indicators, and a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare three expenditure indicators across the following categories: education and research expenditure ratio, personnel expenditure ratio, and personnel expenditure dependency ratio. These institutions were less often financially stable and more often financially deteriorating than general private universities were. Although no statistically significant differences were observed in education and research expenditure ratios, the two personnel-related indicators tended to be high among financially deteriorating institutions. This suggests tight constraints on sustaining personnel costs. Limitations include the reliance on corporation-level rather than university-level financial data and the inclusion of corporations that have only recently established their universities. Nevertheless, this study provides a starting point for examining the financial conditions of professional and vocational higher education providers in Japan.