Exasperation in the Japanese Academe: the Tyranny of International Ranking Systems

• In Event: The Rise of “World Class” Universities and Changing Scholarship in Asia: Competitions, Engagements and Representations

Abstract

Every year, QS world university rankings are announced and widely reported in Japanese and international media. Osaka University (13th) was overtaken in the QS Asia rankings by Chinese universities such as Peking University (7th) and Tsinghua University (11th) in 2015. While University of Toyo (12th) leads other Japanese universities with the number of high impact research papers, rankings fall behind on globalization measures within the ranking system. The Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has implemented a policy to increase the number of foreign academics, students, and international research collaborations. In order to improve international rankings in the context of challenging external criteria and a five-year government funding model, Japanese universities are forced to focus on the attainment of short-term results. However, much technical innovation and detailed knowledge of specified cohorts is born by research efforts over decades. What will happen to the future of the top Japanese universities in an increasingly competitive global academic ranking system?
Universities in many countries cannot survive without the funding provided by the recruitment of foreign students, particularly from north-east Asian countries such as China. University recruiters from Europe, America, Australasia, New Zealand and Singapore are competing for Chinese students and, particularly, those who can pay expensive international tuition fees. With the recent popularization of higher education and economic development in China, the number of Chinese students attending overseas institutions has increased exponentially, especially among countries with favourable post-graduation immigration policies. In this environment that arguably promotes educational fees for permanent residence, Japan is struggling to remain on trajectory of growth that would support research and investment targets and opportunities for increasing their international ranking.

Author

• Junko Otani, Osaka University