Dynamism of internationalization in master’s education in Japan

• In Event: Master’s education in east Asia: access, learning, and employment

Proposal

The purpose of this study is to explore the dynamism of internationalization at master level education and programs in Japanese universities. Although there has been an increase in the total number of international students, the number that have enrolled in master’s degree programs has remained at the same level as in 2015. In order to enhance not only the quantitative increase of enrolled graduate students but also the quality of degree programs, the government initiated several projects for international and domestic graduate students to provide globally competitive education programs. While most of these have been created in national elite universities and provide English-medium education, private universities, which account for 80% of all universities in Japan, also enroll a sizable number of international students. Therefore, this study provides a comprehensive overview of master’s degree programs in Japan and also examines current practices in different types of institutions based on the perspective of internationalization. The first part of this study reviews governmental policies and includes an overview of the main characteristics of master’s education in Japan. In the second part, the differences of master’s education programs among Japanese universities are explored according to empirical data based on university features, such as type (national or private), research orientation (elite or mass-market), and location (metropolitan or rural area). The differences include the disciplines provided for international students, and the numbers and percentage of international students enrolled in classes in English-medium education and other educational practices in master’s programs. The final section covers based on case studies with details of current practice and looks at the critical issues in operating and managing a more internationalized system, while taking the specific features of the university into consideration.

Authors

• Yangson Kim, Hiroshima University

• Sae Shimauchi, Waseda University, Japan