The Education Quality Assurance In Private Universities In Japan

The higher education in Japan has been the focus of attention for educationalscholars in many countries because in Japan higher education has been popularizedwithin a remarkably short period, and furthermore, it has played a significant role inpromoting the economic development and advancing the science and technology inthis country. However, one of the direct consequences of the expansion of highereducation in scale is the continuous decrease in education quality. In1990s, to assurethe education quality, and secure its leading position in the international competitionof science and technology, Japan carried out the reform on higher education aimed atimproving education quality.The private universities and colleges in Japan are animportant part of its higher education system, considering they make up more than70%in the numbers of both higher education institutions and enrolled students inJapan. Therefore, the key to the reform has undoubtedly been to improve theeducation quality in the private universities and colleges first. Because of this, thesubject of current study is private colleges in Japan. From the perspectives ofgovernment, college, and independent evaluation institution, the current studyinvestigates the roles of different entities in assuring education quality in privatehigher education institutions, which is an important feature of this study.With more than ten years’ development, a sound system of quality assurance inhigher education has come into shape in Japan. This system consists of thegovernment as the director, the colleges whose self evaluation is the basis, andindependent third party whose evaluation is the core. This system features thecoexistence of multiple sources of evaluation, and complementary interaction ofdifferent forms of assurance. In current study, literature analysis method is employedin consulting the relevant papers and books to review the history of the qualityassurance in private colleges. By using comparative analysis method, comparison ismade between national and private higher education institutions, as well as betweenthe modes of higher education quality assurance in Japan and America. By doing this,the features of quality assurance in private higher education institutions aresummarized. By studying the case of Waseda University, the top private university inJapan, the content and methods of self evaluation by Waseda University and the independent evaluation of it are analyzed. With investigations at both macro andmicro levels, the current study aims at discovering the features of higher educationquality assurance in private universities and colleges. It is also expected that bysummarizing the major problems and experience in the higher education qualityassurance in private universities and colleges in Japan, some valuable lessons can beprovided to China for its attempt to reform and improve the higher education qualityassurance at home.