Internationalising academic calendar tricky for Tokyo

Bringing Japan’s academic calendar in line with universities around the world, in particular replacing the traditional April enrolment date with September or October entry, has been seen as important for internationaliaing higher education and promoting exchange opportunities for students and academics between Japan and other countries. But it is proving difficult.

A Tokyo University committee was set up last year to examine how to implement the change, after the university’s President Junichi Hamada said he intended to introduce autumn enrolment by 2015.

But in a dramatic development, the University of Tokyo announced late last month that it was abandoning the attempt to align with the Western academic calendar, disappointing experts who had hoped Japan’s leading higher education institution would kick off the much-awaited change.

Instead, the committee is discussing a proposal to change from the current two academic semesters a year to four terms each year starting from March 2015, as a way to allow international students to more easily spend time at the university.

The academic year will include a two-month summer break to encourage Japanese students to study abroad. The private Waseda University is already introducing this change as an alternative to its current system.

“The proposed four-quarter system will be a crucial step to achieving fall enrolment,” Tokyo’s Hamada told the Japanese press in June.

In an editorial, Japan Times newspaper wrote: “The change, while not as sweeping as the original proposal, will at least be a move toward encouraging Japanese students to study abroad.

“It will also encourage other Japanese universities to find more flexible ways for students to gain global skills, knowledge and experience. If they continue as is, they and their students will find themselves increasingly isolated in a globalising world.”

‘A step backwards’

However Professor Yumiko Hada of the Research Institute for Higher Education at Hiroshima University said: “It’s a step backwards for Japanese universities that must globalise to survive as top institutions internationally.

“The decision mirrors Japanese culture that is steeped in domestic concerns.”

Hada, a researcher on UK public academic systems, said changing the university enrolment date could have set the stage for ushering in a less restricted and consensus-dependent Japan. The failure to do, she pointed out, was a stark reminder of the huge hurdles Japan faces in revising its deep-rooted traditions.

Recruitment and employment concerns

At the top of the list of concerns for critics who stalled Tokyo University’s plans to align more closely with Western systems, was the likely effect on graduate recruitment, which begins in April in Japan.

Opponents said that if students graduated in May or June, they would have to wait too long – until the following April – to start jobs, a stance that created a wide rift and snuffed out the possibility of the vital consensus that is needed in Japan.

They argued that the planned academic changes would not be supported by companies, which would have to develop a more flexible recruiting system that could consider graduates at different times of the year, rather than the current rigid timetable.

This would have sparked another “arduous debate” in the conservative corporate world, Hada noted.

Another contentious issue has been the gap between high school graduation in April and university enrolment. Students would have had to wait six months to enter universities.

Akita International University is a private institution that has already launched the autumn entrance system – it is one of a handful of Japanese private universities that have done so.

Professor Michio Katsumata, who teachers American studies at Akita, said students were faring quite well.

“We encourage graduate students to present their plans while they wait for employment. We deal with extremely dedicated plans to travel abroad and work as interns. They return with new language skills and experience and find jobs in Japan eventually,” he explained.

Akita University, established in 2004, operates with subsidies from the local government and student tuition fees. Conducting classes in English and with 60% of its faculty from overseas, the university has earned a reputation for globalised education.

Ongoing struggle

Katsumata contended that the ongoing struggle to change conservative national higher education institutions is rooted in Japan’s job market, where internationalisation remains on the sidelines despite growing pressure to accept foreigners or Japanese who have studied abroad.

“Promotions to management positions for employees who join the smaller international sections of Japanese companies are few in comparison to their counterparts who have been in mainstream education. The slow internationalisation of Japanese higher education is closely tied to this system,” he said.

Hada agreed. A survey of universities conducted by her department in 2011 found that academics do talk more openly now on issues such as gap years for students and developing a more international faculty.

“Ten years ago, the answer we were getting was a simple ‘no’ to international standards. At least now, led by the Ministry of Education, there is more open debate. That is a dramatic change for Japan,” she explained.