14 September 2013The Japanese Government’s blueprint for economic growth highlights the need for education reform and a stronger focus on science and innovation. Prime Minister Abe aims to strengthen Japan’s industry competitiveness, and education reforms play a major role in developing human resources with global skills, including English language proficiency, required for its economic growth.
The second Basic Plan for the Promotion of Education 2013-2017 released in July 2013, aims to internationalise Japan’s higher education sector by encouraging greater two-way student mobility and collaboration between universities in Japan and overseas. The growing interest from Japan in collaboration and outbound student mobility could encourage further growth in the student numbers from Japan.
Japan continues to expand numbers of university courses taught in English from around the 500 currently offered, providing more opportunities for Australian students to undertake study abroad in Japan.
Under the plan Japan aims to strengthen globalisation, reform university governance and course offerings, and promote collaboration between industry and academia.
Major initiatives include:
- improving Japanese universities’ place in world rankings and funding 10 “super global universities” to reach world’s top 100
- stablishing university branch campuses overseas
- doubling the number of Japanese students undertaking study abroad to 120,000 by 2020
- attracting 300,000 international students by 2020
- establishing new public-private scholarships for study abroad; and
- expanding English language education at schools.
Japan also released a Comprehensive Strategy on Science, Technology and Innovation, focused on:
- development of clean and economical energy systems
- development of a healthy and active ageing society as a top-runner in the world
- development of next generation infrastructures as a top-runner in the world
- regional revitalisation taking advantage of the regional resources and
- early recovery and revitalisation from the Great East Japan Earthquake.
This sees a new focus on using local resources and on strengthening primary industries, such as agriculture, through science and technology. A newly established strategic budget-making committee plans to seek an additional $5.5 billion for research and development for the next financial year, to strengthen the role of Council for Science and Technology Policy. The Council is a whole of government framework for science and technology funding.
As a result, the Education Ministry identified 22 universities and institutions capable of making global scientific contribution to fund for the next ten years.
Institutions to receive $4 million are Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nagoya Universities including:
- $3 million: Tsukuba, Tokyo Medical and Dental, Tokyo Technology, Electro-Communications, Osaka, Hiroshima, Waseda and Kyushu Universities, Nara Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, National Institute of Natural Sciences, Higher energy Accelerator Research Organisation, Research Organisation of Information and Systems
- $2 million: Hokkaido, Kobe, Okayama, Kumamoto, Keio Universities, and Toyohashi University of Technology.