University education and employment in Japan. Students' perceptions on employment attributes and implications for university education
| Pages | 202-218 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/09684880510607945 |
| Published date | 01 September 2005 |
| Date | 01 September 2005 |
| Author | Nguyen Danh Nguyen,Yanagawa Yoshinari,Miyazaki Shigeji |
| Subject Matter | Education |
University education and
employment in Japan
Students’ perceptions on employment
attributes and implications for university
education
Nguyen Danh Nguyen, Yanagawa Yoshinari and Miyazaki Shigeji
Okayama University, Okayama City, Japan
Abstract
Purpose – The present research aims to explore students’ perceptions of the needs of employers in
terms of the personal qualities of higher education graduates.
Design/methodology/approach – Questionnaires were delivered to students at four universities in
the Chugoku area of Japan. The students were asked to indicate how important they thought each of
the personal qualities that would be needed for their future employment, and their own evaluation of
their capabilities with respect to each personal quality. In addition, respondents were asked to answer
other questions in relation to satisfaction with their courses, job opportunities, and sources of their
personal qualities.
Findings – The key findings are that job-seeking students tend to have a lower assessment of their
own abilities than their perceived importance of those abilities. In particular, students rated their
abilities significantly lower in communication and presentation skills. Although they rated themselves
highly in terms of optimism, cooperation, and responsibility, they were dissatisfied with their personal
traits in terms of taking initiative, having flexibility, and (especially) in demonstrating an
entrepreneurial mind.
Research limitations/implications – The sample is limited to university students in a limited
geographical area of Japan. The generalizability of the results could therefore be questioned.
Practical implications – The study represents a useful source of information and impartial advice
for undergraduate students planning to find a job, and for higher-education academic staff and
administrators managing undergraduate programs.
Originality/value – This paper fulfils an identified information and resources need, and offers
practical help to reform teaching and career-development processes in Japanese higher education.
Keywords Students, Abilities,Perception, Higher education,Japan
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
After World War II, to keep pace with the West in terms of knowledge and
technological development, the Japanese government has tended to provide grants to
national universities (especially the seven prestigious former imperial universities) and
has kept them under tight control. All of the money and resources required by national
universities have been provided by the government, and national universities have not
had to deal with funding issues or with organizational changes to meet emerging social
needs. Private universities, although theoretically independent of government, receive
about 10 percent of their revenue from the government. This money subsidizes major
research activities and guarantees that tuition fees are not excessive, in exchange for
the government being able to set a quota on the number of enrolled students.
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister www.emeraldinsight.com/0968-4883.htm
QAE
13,3
202
Quality Assurance in Education
Vol. 13 No. 3, 2005
pp. 202-218
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0968-4883
DOI 10.1108/09684880510607945
As a result of these arrangements, Japanese universities have been criticized for
being too rigid and for having retained an outdated academic model of the sort that
originated in German universities in the late 19th century. Altbach and Ogawa (2002,
p. 3) have observed that “the first challenge for Japanese universities is [a] need to
evolve into student-oriented institutions that are appropriate mass higher educa tion
system”. Many professors are research-oriented, and are indifferent to their students
and to their teaching. These professors have been criticized for not caring whether
students perceived their courses as being boring or irrelevant. Only since 1998 has
faculty development begun to make an impact on Japanese universities in terms of the
professional duty of staff members to improve their teaching skills. In a comparative
study of the academic profession in 14 countries undertaken by the Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (Altbach, 1996), Japanese universities
were grouped as a “German type” of university, in which the activities and preferences
of academic staff are highly research-oriented. This group also included Germany, The
Netherlands, Sweden, and Korea. In contrast, teaching activities were highly fav oured
by the faculty members of Latin American universities, including those in Chile,
Mexico, and Argentina. Universities in the United States of America, the United
Kingdom, Australia, and Hong Kong were grouped as having both a research
orientation and a teaching orientation (Altbach, 1996).
The Japanese higher education system has reached the “post-massification stage”,
with approximately 50 percent of young people enrolled in higher education
institutions, but with the academic achievement of Japanese university students being
much more variable than is the case in the USA or Europe (Teichler, 1997; Yonezawa,
2002). The best universities (especially the seven prestigious former imperial
universities) require students to study very hard if they are to obtain pre stigious
academic achievements. However, it is claimed that students of other universitie s are
not motivated to be so industrious at an undergraduate level. Surveys suggest that
Japanese university students spend only about 25 hours per week on study and almost
15 hours engaged in part-time work to earn money (Teichler, 1997). In most cases,
university students take “easy classes” in the first three years, and then spend the
fourth year seeking jobs (Ogawa, 1999; Yonezawa, 2002).
This can be understood as being a result of the social system and its Confucian
traditions. Education in Japan has long been considered as a process of cultivating
character for lifetime employment in the workplace. Japanese employers believe that it is
more important for a new employee to be a loyal member of the organization than to have
studied a specific subject in school or to have acquired certain skills. Because professional
education and training are expected to be imparted by employers, rather than by
universities, Japanese employers are not concerned about university academic
achievement when they recruit graduates. Rather, they are concerned about graduate
“trainability”, which is assumed to be a result of the entrance examinations of the student
and the reputation of a university (Yano, 1997; Mitsuta, 1999; Yonezawa, 2002).
However, this situation is now changing as a result of social changes in Japan.
Japanese society is changing in similar ways to those being observed in other countries
as a result of such international phenomena as knowled ge-based industries,
globalization, information technology, and market-based mechanisms. As a result,
the Japanese higher education system is facing the same sorts of problems that are
being faced all over the world, including demographic changes, demands for
accountability, financial constraints, reconsideration of the social and economic role of
University
education and
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