Graduate School of Political Science and Economics
Dean's message
Competent Persons with Internationality and Creativity
KEMANAI, Yuji
The trend of University Reform started in the middle of 1990s and persists today, and disputes are becoming volatile. Especially in regard to this movement, one suggestion which states that "a university is judged by its graduate schools" points to the fact that the emphasis of the reform lies in the modification of graduate schools. As a result, revitalizing its graduate schools has gradually become the objective to argue in every university, and the Graduate School of Political Science and Economics is currently undergoing a transformation to new institutions and systems.
The fundamental principle of university reform lies in introducing the demands of competition through deregulation to elasticize institutions and systems. As such, through market principle functions, the promotion of the ability to instruct is targeted, and as a result, the revitalization of education and research will be realized. For example, "lecture estimate systems" to open results, "entrance omission systems" to shorten the required number of years to graduate, and the reform of Doctoral and Master’s degree donation systems. In addition, the creation of two courses in a graduate school, one for researchers and one for professionals, is vital. The targets of these reforms are the expansion of graduate school education and promotion of higher level research.
Now, how do the results of graduate school reform look? Statistics show that the number of graduate students in 1995, when the reform started, stood at 150,000, and climbed to 250,000 in 2007. As we can clearly see, the quantitative expansion has undoubtedly been realized. Why then, are we confronted by the fact that the number of applicants to the schools is now declining, except for courses for professionals?
There are two reasons: First, when graduates leave school, many of them cannot get into an adequate profession. Second, the school loans they must repay are an excessive burden, sometimes amounting to millions of yen.
Today in Japan, to live as a graduate student is a high-risk way of life, and therein lies the fundamental problem that needs to be solved. It would appear that it is necessary to lessen the financial burdens of graduate school hopefuls as soon and as much as possible. In short, I believe that scholarships for graduate students must be much more expansive in terms of what financial items they cover, and the attitude of scholarship distribution must be changed "from loan to grant", thus lessening encumbrances. Today, among OECD countries, only Japan, Korea and Mexico provide scholarships which must be repaid. Of course these changes need financial backing, and it will be a challenge, but I hope that step to progress will be taken.
