Industrial nations today are undergoing dramatic transformations as knowledge and information become the foundations for economic and social development. These changes also impact university organization. Issues of university reforms, including finance diversification, quality control, and institutional governance, are closely related to this transformation. In a knowledge-based economy, the university needs to develop financial resources in addition to the government, demonstrate to society the quality of university activities, and institute total quality management. Unfortunately, Japanese universities have not been interested in the practical use of knowledge because of long-term economic growth and educational expansion, as well as Japan’s lifelong employment system. Companies have provided practical knowledge to there employees by training them within the industry and have not expected universities to assume this function. However, the transformation to a knowledge-based society is changing the traditional relationship between the role of universities and market expectations. The five papers in this special issue clarify the new role of university in a knowledge society by examining current educational reforms, the relationship between competency and the university education, the needs of adult students in graduate school, and student transitions from university to work.

　 This paper addresses questions regarding the new role of the university in the knowledge society, the kinds of transformations we can observe in the university, and how the university can change to cope with an emerging knowledge society.

　 Innovation led by an exchange of knowledge is essential in the evolution of a knowledge society. The university is a principal producer of knowledge in Japanese innovation. Therefore, the university is a driving force behind the knowledge society. Such a society demands that the university proactively produce, transmit, and transfer knowledge. The university must also increasingly interact with society. These new social demands force a reconfiguration of university activities and organization.

　 As for university research, this paper points out that Mode 2 knowledge production is going to prevail over the traditional Mode 1. For example, university-based spin-off firms now exist and words like academic entrepreneur and entrepreneurial university are not metaphorical expressions, but expressions simply describing the actual current state of university affairs.

　 Certificate programs offered by both private firms and universities provide an example of educational reconfiguration. The existence of these programs implies that there is an overlay in the training provided by higher education and provite industry needed for the knowledge society . Furthermore, the paper points out that certificate programs are now typical in university education. While traditional modes of higher education have been systematically organized based upon academic disciplines, new modes are organized around specific skills provided in modules.

　 As for organizational issues, boundaries between the university and society, and within the university itself, have been transformed. University and industry relationships have brought about various types of new organizations such as spin-offs, TLOs, science parks, and so on, which blur the lines between the university and industry. At the same time, internal university structures are going to be altered. Such changes in university settings demand a re-articulation of the relationship between the university and society in order to move forward.

　 This paper examines the role of practical science in evaluation recent educational reforms in Japanese higher education. Practical science refers to the fundamental attitude of the researcher towards the subject of study, including the basic ideas, assumptions, and objectives of the study, and the study’s application to daily life. Practical science does not refer to study such as engineering, medical science, or management science.

　 Practical science is understood in three ways : an inquiry for profit orientation, an empirical approach based on evidence and date through experiment or field survey, and application of the study’s outcome to everyday human practices.

　 Using practical science as an evaluative tool, this article examines an educational reform implemented at a private Japanese university. The reform focused on improving the quality of campus life by improving customer satisfaction and the contributions of information technology. The research in this article is based on student surveys focusing specifically upon student course evaluation and student evaluation of computer networks on campus.

　 The results show that students prefer two-way communication with their instructors and that the enrichment of the technology environment for students contributes greatly to students’ satisfaction. The findings from the research can be useful in measuring institutional quality assurance.

　 During reforms in human resource management, the concept of competency was introduced into the world of work. The characteristics of competency are paying attention to the output or performance of workers and evaluating them according to a behavioral index. This paper examines the actual conditions of competency-based human resource development based on interviews with personnell managers. In these interviews, application of the concept of competency to employment and training is analyzed mainly with respect to its impact on higher education.

　 The concept of competency is still ambiguous, however it focuses on the application of knowledge. What competency suggests for higher education is that in addition to the knowledge and skills acquired as outputs of education, the application of knowledge and skills during the process of education is also important.

　 Competency is a mere tool in promoting good performance in the business world. However, in the university world, it may be possible that we consider knowledge and skills to be building blocks and to establish training for competency as our educational purpose. We should not be merely following the development of knowledge management in the business world, but maybe become aware of competency concepts and apply them to higher education as well.

　 Since the middle of 1980s, various measures promoting Master’s level education for adult students have been implemented in Japan, including the special admission for adults, the establishment of night courses, and the creation of professional graduate shools. Consequently, the number of adult students in Master’s level courses has increased dramatically during the last decade of twentieth century. These students can be classified into three main types : ‘job mission’ type , ‘women / scholar’ type , and ‘ businesspeople’s self-development’ type. These types differ from each other both in the strengh of the relation to their employer and in the tightness of their daily time schedule.

　 Adult students are generally satisfied with the education they receive. Most of them believe that they can apply the knowledge and competencies they acquired in courses to their careers. Their employers , however, neither expect much from these courses nor appreciate their employees’ educational endeavor. To bridge this gap, professional or industrial organizations should determine the skills necessary for their employees, communicate these needs to educational institutions, and then accredit those institutions that provide sufficient qualifications.

　 In order to develop Master’s level programs for adults, various areas of campus life including faculty, equipment , and other services should be expanded considerably for the convenience of adult students. The most important challenge is to redefine the objectives of adult education in Master’s programs and ensure adequate funding for these objectives.

　 Utilizing university graduate survey data collected in eleven European countries and Japan, this paper analyzes the relationship between higher education and graduates’transitions to work.

　 In recent years, the relationship between higher education and work has attracted considerable attention in developed countries due to several circumstances. The enrollment ratio in higher education has increased in Japan as well as in European countries during the lasr decade-a trend known as “massification” or “universalization”. Additionally, knowledge-based economies and socio-economic globalization have developed. Based upon these factors, human resource needs, recruitment practices, and career paths are changing.

　 European and Japanese researchers jointly conducted a comparative study compiling data from more than 35,000 university graduates in 1999. This paper evaluates transition outcomes and the types of education graduates experienced at their universities. Transition outcomes are then explained by various factors in the graduates’ higher education experiences, including multi-level indexes of each country’s contextual differences.

　 Several conclusions can be drawn from this study. First, Japanese graduates show better transition outcomes in terms of smoothness in finding employments compared to their European counterparts, but fare worse in terms of ulilizing the knowledge they acquired in college in their new jobs. Secondly, Japanese graduates enroll in college at a younger age and finish in a shorter period of time with fewer work experiences both before and during their college years. Thirdly, the low levels of knowledge utilization in Japan are mostly explained by less work experience during college and a younger graduation age. From these findings, it seems important to encourage work experience, such as internship programs, in Japanese higher education, and to evaluate carefully the competencies university graduates need for their future careers.

　 Organization, governance, and management of higher education institutions are attracting attention as important fields of research in Japan. From this perspective, this paper traces the development of academic research focused on these topics in the United States. An analysis of a publication database in these fields shows that the number of publications jumped dramatically in the 1970 s and continues to increase. Another analysis reveals that the subject matter covered by the research changed significantly over three periods since the 1960s.

　 The first period, the 1960 s through the early 1970 s, can be characterized as the time when the university was discovered to be an organization. The rapid growth in the number of institutions in addition to student uprisings brought attention to the university as an organization. In the 1960 s, the literature focused more on the formal aspects of organization such as the legal structure of governance. Later, the focus shifted to more implicit or“private”aspects of organizations.

　 The second period, the late 1970 s through the 1980 s, is characterized by emerging interests in strategic management, marketing, and leadership issues. These interests reflected the crises many higher education institutions faced because of stagnant enrollments and an economic recession. There were, however, criticisms against such research trends for their lack of insight into latent organizational structure.

　 The third period, the 1990 s, showed again a significant shift of interest. Reflecting increasingly aggressive demands by the public for greater accountability and contributions to society, the university was being forced to change. Reseachers appeared no longer optimistic about university management’s ability to lead higher education institutions and instead concentrated on researching more flexible approaches. This resulted in a growing body of literature focused on reforms.

　 Based on this analysis, growing concerns about university management in Japan should not be responded to by research focused only on the conditions that allow for strong management.