Th .e findings of this research are as follows. The societies that have introduced liberal arts and science into their higher education system (composed of specialized education only) since 1990's, such as England, Australia, China and Hong Kong, have some common characteristics. 1.It has been introduced into top institutions. 2.Interdisciplinary subjects or research methods are emphasized. 3.The aim of it is to raise employability in the globalized age. 4.There are cases that separate colleges for liberal arts and sciences from conventional faculty system or providing it for selected students. They mean that this new type of liberal arts and sciences in those societies focus on nurturing the elite in globalized age

In this study, targeting the sociology of education in Japan that emerged in the postwar period, (1) collection and analysis of materials related to the history of the Japan Society of Educational Sociology, (2) second generation members who supported the development of the Japan Society of Educational Sociology ( An interview survey centered on the academic society since the 1950s), (3) Publication of two volumes of articles on academic issues (academic issues, contemporary issues) in educational sociology, (4) Published an English dissertation focusing on the main themes, methods of research, and educational reality of Japanese educational sociology.This includes global and regional policy and social trends such as neoliberalism,mobility,and the diffusion of ICT madias,while the reactions of researchers and society against these trends have often been different from other countries

The aim of this research is to analyze how graduate students (specifically masters' course of study in humanities and social sciences) are evaluated by labor markets from the viewpoint of three countries (Japan, US, China). The framework of this study is the relationship the following three actors: education in graduate schools, ability of graduate students, and labor markets and the purpose of this study is where the bottle neck is among three actors.As a result of this study, we have found the characteristics of Japan compared with the US and China: Graduate education in Japan does not think much of relevant of labor market, graduate students do not think much of using their education in labor markets and labor markets do not rely on graduate education rather than their in-house training. The case of the US and China have the a little bit of the same problem but they try to solve it from university side

本研究の目的は、大学カリキュラムの組織的改善を支援するため、「コースポートフォリオ実践プログラム」を開発し、本プログラムを適用した実践のアクションリサーチにもとづき、ICT活用も含めた汎用性の高い大学カリキュラムの質保証モデルを構築することである。「コースポートフォリオ」とは、個別コースの「デザイン」「実施」「学生の学び」に教員の省察を加えた文書であり、これを作成することにより、大学教員個人にとっては、学生の学びを踏まえたリフレクションが可能となるという意味で、FDのためのツールとなり得る。また、これを組織的に導入することで、各大学や部局に適用可能な、汎用性の高い大学カリキュラムの質保証モデルを提案することが可能となる。
本研究の当初年度到達目標は、前年度に完成したコースポートフォリオ実践プログラムを組織内に試験的に導入し、カリキュラム改善につなげることが可能かどうかに関する探索的研究を行うこと、また、学生の学びの成果物の取得と評価に関する方法論の検討を行った上で、ツールを開発し、より多くの大学教員にコースポートフォリオ作成を依頼・実践プログラムの改善情報を得ることであった。前者については、医療系大学ならびに工学系専門学校で組織的な導入が試みられ、組織全体での導入の可能性を確認するとともに、その際の課題について明らかにすることができた。後者については、全国の10人の優れた教育実践者によるコースポートフォリオが作成され、公開することができた。こうした取り組みの結果、個人利用・組織利用の両側面における、コースポートフォリオ作成の意義と課題を明らかにすることができた。

Our research group has developed the student surveys systems for learning improvement, so called JCIRP (Japanese Cooperative Institutional Research Program) since 2004. Our program consists of three student surveys such as Japanese Freshman Survey, Japanese College Student Survey, and Japanese Junior College Student Survey. Until 2014, approximate 140,000 students from more than 866 four-year colleges and two-year colleges participated in our program. It seems that our student survey system has institutionalized the culture to assess student learning outcome based on the self-reported data and has been widely accepted in Japanese higher education institutions as the indirect assessment system. This study has tackled with the development of student survey systems in Japan, what problems are to be focused in terms of assessment of learning outcome and what we have to do in the next stage for the development of our survey system. Also, our study developed the data base for the JCIRP which participating institutions can utilize for their student assessment.

The aim of this research is to examine the effectiveness of professional schools by comparing 'flexible type students' who try to acquire educational credentials at graduate schools after entering the labor market with 'conventional type students' who enter graduate schools after graduating universities. As the result we find that the achievement of 'flexible type students' at graduate schools is higher than that of 'conventional type students' although there is no difference the achievements of both type of students at the time of graduating universities

To develop generic skills effectively, we found it is essential to set educational/learning goals clearly, to implement learning-centered curriculum systematically, and to introduce active learning methods both inside and outside of the classroom which emphasize students' participation and hand-on experiences. When we compared the results of self-assessment, peer assessment and instructor's assessment, self-assessment and instructor's assessment was highly correlated. The correlations of knowledge in major, information collection and its utilization, critical thinking, logical thinking, and analytical thinking are very significant. Students and instructors are making judgment in their seminar

Teaching and learning issues have been widely discussed in higher education institutions but usually from a single institution perspective. Benchmarking efforts that allow institutions to compare data have enriched the conversations by allowing cross institutional comparisons, but it could be argued that most universities operate in a shared national environment so that variations among institutions are still limited to a degree. Also, accumulation of longitudinal data of students and analysis of these data will be able to contribute on quality and quantity of student research in Japan.
This study provides a comparison of student outcomes from two higher education systems that operate in different cultural and structural contexts-American and Japanese higher education. The American perspective is developed through findings from the College Senior Survey (CSS) from UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute. The Japanese perspective is developed through findings from the Japanese College Student Survey (JCSS) developed.
Together, these data represent thousands of current college students and provide a summary of the learning and experiences of college students. The descriptive analysis shows that US students spend more time in learning activities outside class than Japanese students and show higher evaluation of learning outcome and self-evaluation for their abilities and skills than Japanese students. Analysis of JCSS2005 data confirms that affective fulfillment of students is closely associated with student engagement and the satisfaction toward quality of teaching and learning determines the satisfaction for college experiences.The results of the study suggest that development of effective pedagogy and faculty's involvement are indispensable for enhancing teaching and learning. In the changing environment of Japanese higher education, this study confirms the effectiveness of college impact theory which has been conditionally accepted in Japan. However, it is expected that accumulation and analysis of student data contributes on the improvement of program reform of each higher education institution and policy making process.

The aim of this research is to examine the transformation of undergraduate curricula and faculty organization since 1991 of the deregulation of the Standard of the Establishment of Universities.In 2002 the review of related papers and collection of documents of curriculum reforms in Japanese universities were conducted, and the analytical framework of this research were established through the former works. In 2003 questionnaire survey for each faculty of four year universities were conducted. The number of distributed questionnaire is 1,776, the number of response is 1,000, and the response ratio is 56.3%. The main questions were the graduation requirement of credit-units and its distribution between general and specialized education, the types and contents of courses, faculty organization of general education, and curriculum policy. The characteristic of this survey was to distribute questionnaire to all faculty in Japanese universities, not institutions so it makes faculty comparison possible. In 2004 the analysis of the questionnaire survey, presentation of the survey results at the conferences, and writing of the final report were the main activities.The main findings are the followings : 1)the volume of specialized education has increased since 1991 over all, 2)while medical, engineering, natural science faculty have increased specialized education credits, faculty of letters has not increased specialized education and diversified its curricula, 3)in the part of general education, skill acquisition (language or IT literacy) and first year education have increased, 4)the inequality of faculty position between general and specialized education mostly disappear, but the teaching burden increases and general education organization does not function well.As the results of deregulation of the Standard of the Establishment of Universities in 1991, the common part of undergraduate curricula has decreased and the common core value of undergraduate degree must be considered again

Material does the various intellectual resources which a higher education system has, and it is imposed on you for today higher education widely community and it can turn abroad, and to send, and it is a request of societyKnowledge when I made the intellectual resources which universities had through this study the teaching materials as multimedia contents and left it open widely in the world and a community through a network such as Internet was provided. On that occasion a thing vital above all is to be the teaching materials which balance was able to take with being the teaching materials on the basis of needs of a student attending a lecture It is clear from a freedom description of investigation that it is a fantasy that a certain related contents can expect potential needs to a student majoring in Japanology at least in Japan.We made the intellectual resources which a Japanese higher education system had in each the teaching materials, and that we showed danger to fall into simple self-satisfaction was clarified information in various media by a medium when we sent it if there was not it by the information dispatch that stood on overseas needs

During the first and second years, we held two international workshops, and consideration was deepened through periodical meetings. In the first year, we tried to chiefly confirm the character of the problems, and in the second year we expanded the consideration through case studies from the aspect of the comparative and historical research. In the last year, we reported on the work of each one's theme.Our main findings and results are follows ;First, when this research examined the relationship, the adjustment and the conflict etc. between the industry and labor policy and the educational policy, various patterns and types are found comparatively and historically. So we divided into two groups roughly with our project members. In one group, research focused on the relations with the globalization for Asia that exists in a modernization, and in the other group, the modernization process of Japan was focused on.Secondly, it is clarified that many areas in Asia containing China and South Korea have been experiencing the expansion of the higher education in the wave of the globalization that the sphere in English in the United States and Britain, etc. has had initiative for the past two decades. Then, we examined the transforming process and the manifest and latent conflicts between traditional systems and the new order in the higher education systems in some of Asian and Western countries.Thirdly, it was suggested that a close matching between an educational system and the industrial labor system alone be not necessarily preferable, from the historical viewpoint. That is, two systems have peculiar autonomy in the term of the change for the purpose of achieving good performances, so that the conflicts between two systems have necessarily had not bad influences on the development of economy for the long term

The purpose of this research is to indicate the potentiality of the Virtual University (VU) as well as its limit. Four groups were organized. The first one is to investigate the recent trends and developments of VU in worldwide context. Second, third and. fourth groups did studies based on the actual courses utilizing online, i.e. The Open Laboratory Class, Kyoto-Keio Joint Seminar, and The Distance Education between Kyoto University and UCLA respectively. With the findings gathered from these fields, KNV (Kyoto-Naruto Virtual University project) is implemented in 2003 so as to scrutinize the basis for VU. In this project, a learning community between two universities is established with the help of several media such as the TV meeting system, the Net-meeting, the Web-board, and the chat.Meanwhile, we hosted an international congress entitled "The Virtual University-Future of our Universities?" inviting researchers from USA and Mexico. In this congress, after our interim report was presented, the problems concerning VU were discussed from various view points including the learning theory, the educational policy and the philosophy. In addition to this principal conference, several meetings were held to share findings among investigators.The potentiality of VU is discussed in the respect that it is not a substitution of face-to-face learning situation but quite a new learning environment that promotes students' active learning and self understandings. through constructing a multiple-reality, in which students realize the various aspects of themselves and others. This conclusion suggests the possibility of Liberal Education through VU. On the other hand, we pointed out the challenges facing VU, such as the necessity to improve its cost performance and the emergent need of Faculty Development concerning online education.The findings mentioned above have reported at several international congresses as well as at domestic ones. Papers are also contributed to several journals, and we published the final comprehensive report in May 2004

The objectives of this research were (1) to survey the latest trends of advanced IT implementation in higher education in the leading areas, such as North America, Western Europe and Australia in order to contribute to the deployment of domestic educational reform and (2) to analyze the possibilities of international collaborations both with the developed countries and with developing countries in Asia-Pacific regions in these fields.In our final report, we reviewed on international dissemination of e-learning, its localization and quality assurance, sharing and re-use of digital learning resources and distance higher education by ICT, collected various cases in different countries. The results were reported as the following papers; "Educational reform based on e-learning : The establishment of an international web-based learning community", "Multi-cultural perspectives on e-learning : Co-existence and collaboration", "Quality assurance of e-Learning, ","Sharing and re-uses of digital learning materials and their quality assurance", "A Canadian virtual university : The case in Technical University of British Columbia", "An Introduction of Open Learning Agency (OLA)", "Review of a report from National Center for Educational Statistics on distance education at degree-granting post secondary institutions", ". "Distance Collaborative Learning via international broadband connections", "A case study of computer programming education in gaming situation for senior citizens over broadband network" and other 16 papers

We examined and compared the social functions of secondary schools in two remarkably different areas between the two World Wars.One area is the area, Toyonaka, where urbanization proceeded rapidly as a bed town of Osaka. There newly settled residents who mostly consisted of new middle class required academic secondary schools for their children.The other is the area, Tsuruoka in Yamagata prefecture, where modernizing process was much more slower than Toyonaka. There various social classes had their own educational demands, and different types of secondary schools, from academic to vocational, were established based on those demands.For example, boys of wealthy old middle class moved into new middle class through male academic schools. Boys of lower class enrolled in engineering secondary schools as future middle level engineer in urban big industry. Sewing schools were for future farmers' housewives.From these findings we can conclude as follows :1. Social classes have their own educational demands and the structure of social classes in a local area and its transformation has a strong influence on the type of secondary schools established.2. The purpose of secondary schools were to develop the area schools were established by educating young generation. But in fact prestigious academic schools had a function as a ladder for geographic mobility from a local area to urban and industrial areas. It may be the characteristic of Japanese secondary schools until late 1960's. We need to examine it more in detail

Distance postgraduate courses have been authorized only since 1998 in Japan, and a Japanese higher education world has not accumulated enough practices and experiences in this sector. The research aims at comparative study on Distance Postgraduate Programs in Australia, Canada, UK, and USA, in terms with the social and educational backgrounds in use of new media, by means of on-the-site investigation. The research was carried out from the view point of how media technology, educational programs, services to the learners, staff development/training, learning assessment, and organization management are systematically established and integrated. The special attentions were given to "Virtual University" in 1999 and to" China in the World Educational Market" in 2000.Each visited country has a long history and experiences in distance postgraduate programs, which play the roles of Professional Development, Recurrent Education, or Continuing Education in the field of MBA, Health Services, or Education.The use of media in USA and Canada is different from that of UK.Online education programs without face-to-face interaction are commonly observed in the former case, whereas face-to-face tutorials and assignments are integral parts, and the issues of learners' media literacy, cost and accessibility to new media are highly considered in the latter case. These characteristics are distinctly reflected in the forms of Virtual University. One party neglects face-to-face exchanges, and the other party tries to maintain the functions of face-to-face tutorials.The distance postgraduate programs in UK and Australia often target on Asian educational markets, where China is regarded as a big market

The aim of this study is to examine the structure of general education curricula in Japanese universities and the US universities. The following findings are obtained.(1) Undergraduate curricula in the US universities are composed of three parts : general education, major, and electives. In them, general education is assumed as the core part of undergraduate education because of its historical tradition as liberal education. Majors are the late comer but have predominant position.(2) The ideas of general education are breadth and coherence. It has been almost impossible to be compatible between breadth and coherence in general education because of distribution requirement and department system. In spite of this, the curriculum reforms in the US have been conducted to seek the compatibility of these two ideas.(3) General education has been positioned in the first stage of university education so a part of it has been exchanged by remedial education. This situation recently becomes a big burden of general education.(4) The tradition of liberal education has caused cultural wars in universities. This shows what has been assumed as high culture in the US.(5) The notion of liberal education is seen in the difference between BA and BS as the type of undergraduate degrees. Even though the same programs of study for instance computer science, the BA is likely to focus on wide range of study requirement and the BS is likely to focus on engineering field of study.During the two years, four papers has been published in scholarly journals and one book which is translation has been published

We have investigated the new technology-based distance higher education in USA, Canada, UK, Australia, and Japan in terms of the concept called "Open Learning". The findings which we can summarize are as follows :
(1) USA has been leading the new technology-based distance higher education among the five countries above-mentioned. We can find the development of the on-line courses at the graduate level education which have targeted on the market of employees who work for companies.
(2) As for the in-house training programs based on learning technology which companies are doing, the situations among the five countries is same as low in use. But the Japanese situation is the lowest.
(3) In addition to the distance program delivered by the distance education institutions, the traditional universities have developed their own distance programs based on new learning technologies. Japan is very delayed in developing the distance program designed for the market of cooperate employees.

This study attempted to analyze the situation and to seek for policy implications based on two kinds of survey-the case studies of curriculum development at undergraduate levels and the national survey on the opinion of department chairpersons at graduate levels in Japan, especially after the overall reform by the University Council since the beginning of the 1990s. Followings are the gist of our findings :
1.At the undergraduate level, the liberalization of legal control has given welcomed by many institutions and it became incentive to stimulate various academic reforms (especially curricular development and establishment of new programs or new departments). However, the direction of reform is, in many cases, obscure, greatly varies and often quite difficult to reach consensus among the faculty. In general, the weakening or negligence of the general education has been taking place. Reform has made the faculty busy and the financial provision necessary for effective educational system often becomes a one of the grave problems.
2.According to the proposals of the University Council, the self-study and evaluation activities have been increasingly implemented. While this has become good opportunity to initiate self-improvement, on the other hand, the formalization for political purpose is also criticized. Outsider's evaluation is found in small number of-institutions, however it is likely to increasing. Again, the financial source is also a great problem.
3.Graduate school has greatly been expanded, influenced by the national policy of strengthening graduate study and research. However, the aims of graduate program (the training of academics or practical professionals? ), the admissions (how to accept non-traditional students such as adult students or international students who are not accustomed to traditional graduate education), last but not least, the finance problem (how to maintain the quality while expanding the quantity) are important challenges.

Distance learning is one of the most promising methods to provide higher education with people in the world. In spite of this, there are few findings of the function of distance higher education. Therefore since 1989, the National Institute of Multimedia Education (NIME) has been conducted a series of comparative studies on distance higher education institutions in Asia and the Pacific regions by interviewing students and graduates of institutions.
In 1992, we conducted the research in Malaysia and in Korea. In Malaysia, we interviewed students and graduates in 7 regional study centers of a department of distance education in the Malaysia Institute of Technology and we get some documents about the students' background and graduates' job allocation in the University of Malaysia in order to compare with those of distance education institutions in September.
In Korea, We made interviews and sent out questionnaires to students of 8 regional study centers in August and September.
In 1993, we conducted the research in China. In November, we visited China and interviewed about 180 students and graduates of 12 higher education institutions in 6 cities. In 12 institutions, 6 are radio and TV universities and other 6 are major comprehensive universities in order to compare with the distance higher education.
By these researches, we examined functions and operations of distance higher education institutions, and found that higher education institutions had played an important roll of both nation development and personal social mobility in Asia and the Pacific regions.

Distance learning is one of the most promising methods to provide higher education with people in the world. Since 1989, the National Institute of Multimedia Education (NIME) has been conducted a series of comparative studies on universities using distance education modes in the Asian and the Pacific regions. For the first year of the research, NIME conducted field work study of the open universities in Thailand and Indonesia in 1989. Followed by this project, NIME conducted a research on distance higher education in Pakistan and India in 1990. For 1991, NIME implements similar research on the University of the South Pacific (USP).
For the distance education, local study centers such as Regional Centers play important roles to enhance students learning. Despite the importance of the study centers, we have known only a little about their actual functions and operations. Nor do we know much about differences in study centers systems in different countries. This research focuses on their role and function. By interviewing teaching and administrative staff of the Regional Centers and comparing different study centre systems, we examined functions and operations of study centers and their influences on the local societies where they are located. This research also focused on impacts of the distance higher education on socio-economic development of the Asian and Pacific countries and also on the trends of social mobility. Through interviews with students and graduates of distance higher education institutions, government staff responsible for socio-economic development, executives of local businesses, and people in Asian and pacific people studying or working in foreign countries, we explored how the distance learning program socio-economically affects their societies.