Facilitating higher education mobility for the future views from Japanese context Akiyoshi Yonezawa CAHE, Tohoku University 1

Japan in a global policy context Abe ( ): maintain a leading position in Asia by opening up Japanese society – Internationalization of Japanese HE became one of top policy agenda Fukuda ( ) : Education as a diplomatic tool – Plan for inviting 300,000 international students – Global 30: select 30 universities for supporting internationalization – Proposal of Asian ERASMUS Aso (2008- ): Aiming to take a leadership for tackling with Economic Crisis – Central Council for Education (Advisory Council for MEXT) starts discussion on roadmap for improving global competitiveness and internationalization of HE 2

Japanese HE and Globalization Highly privatized international student market – 80 to 90 % of international students are technically self-financed – Relying on the over-demand in neighboring countries, and over- supply in home HE market Internationalization in two arenas (Global/domestic: Teichler 1999) – Non-English speaking but substantially large Demographic pressure both in society as a whole – Low birth rate, decreasing youth population, aging (Yonezawa & Kim 2008) – Retirement of first baby boomers and unpopularity of engineering profession among youngsters Rapid growth and internationalization of neighboring countries Limited scholarships for studying abroad by home students

Number and Share of International Students in Japan (2006) 4

Two types of approaches for internationalization 1.(mainly national universities): strengthen the research capacities to internationally competitive levels: but relying on domestic grants (international reviews becoming common) 2.(mainly private universities): improve the quality of education to meet international standards: quality assurance including foreign accreditation, benchmarking etc. 5

Profile of Top 200 Japanese Universities (QS/THES 2008) 6

7 Singapore100 Germany97 France88 Malaysia87 Mexico85 China78 South Korea77 North Korea69 Afghanistan67 Macau66 Japan, Mongolia, Lao65 Cambodia63

Classes taught in English Bachelor programs – 0%: 29.1% (national: 16.7%, private: 31.6%) – 10% or more: 18.5% (n: 8.3%, p: 19.8%) Master programs – 0%: 58.1% (n: 23.3%, p: 67.8%) – 10% or more: 9.5% (n: 23.3%, p: 6.8%) Doctorate programs – 0%: 66.5% (n: 25.9%, p: 76.3%) – 10% or more: 10.3% (n: 25.9%, p: 7.1%) 8

Internationalization & Finance 9

Linkage with labor market: Recruitment fit for long-term employment in a homogeneous culture by Japanese firms – Job hunting long before graduation with time- consuming selection process – In-house promotion linked with seniority based salary scheme: unattractive for non-Japanese white-collar workers and high-skilled professionals – Lack of career path to be a leader capable for managing multi-national enterprises 10

Salary increase of MBA holder (Kato 2003) 11

Facilitating higher education mobility for the future in Japanese context Mismatch between policy vision for a global leader and reality in HE far from cosmopolitan environment Different agenda are dealt with in a single word – Research is stressed at national universities, while curriculum/teaching is put importance at private universities – Hierarchies: majorities are relatively domestic or local Danger: Internationalization of HE will become a dead letter? – Manipulation for achieving an ambitious goals: Redefinition of international students, discussion for developing Japanese original world university rankings Internationalization through internal resources – Lack of regional-level funds to rely on, no market competitiveness in English-based education services Need for structural change of Japanese society as a whole 12

Merci bien! 13