Handbook of Higher Education in Japan

This Handbook tells the story in 25 chapters of how Japan’s HE system has become what it is now, ending with a very tentative glimpse into the rest of the 21st century. A variety of themes are covered by scholars—both established, senior figures and younger researchers with their own fresh look at current circumstances. Chapters that concentrate on governance look at the distinction between "national," "public," and "private" institutions; others consider important topics such as internationalization, student recruitment, faculty mobility. More innovative topics include "Women of Color Leading in Japanese Higher Education." All provide copious references to other authorities, but rather than just toe the conventional line they include opinions and proposals that may be contentious or even revolutionary. The editor provides an overview of the subject and its treatment in an Introduction. -- Rights Statement: Amsterdam University Press has exclusive rights to sell the print Handbook in all territories excluding Japan, Taiwan and Korea. --

A Case for Caution: Twenty-One Years of Bologna and Ramifications for the U.S. Higher Education

The spread and influence of older European higher education models and the current Bologna Process (BP) is strongly linked to its colonial and neocolonial hegemony. However, the 1999 convergence of European models under the umbrella of the BP reform has had implications beyond the colonial and neocolonial spheres, with its effects impacting even the well-established and reputable education systems of North America. Unlike the countries of Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia Pacific, and the United States did not have any reasons to embrace the BP models. However, they are indirectly affected by it. The international nature of academe, characterized by cooperation and exchanges, has made it impossible for United States tertiary education systems to avoid the effects of the European BP reform entirely. Student and faculty mobility, transferability of degrees, and joint and dual degree offerings have increased significantly as a result of the “external dimension” objectives of the Bologna reform. The highly globalized higher education market is characterized by partnerships and exchanges, including competition between European and the United States colleges and universities over international students. The BP ultimately has and will likely continue to influence the calculations of higher education stakeholders in the United States.

A Critical Perspective on Short-Term International Mobility of Faculty: An Experience from Kazakhstan

This article looks at the relatively understudied phenomenon of short-term international mobility of faculty from the critical internationalization perspective. It uses data from interviews with academics from Kazakhstan, who participated in short-term professional development trips abroad to understand who benefits and who loses as a result of short-term faculty mobility and how the short-term international mobility may contribute to the process of reproduction of the existing social structures and inequality. Critical internationalization perspective in general, as well as mobility paradigm more specifically, helps to reveal some important insights about short-term international mobility from a non-Western country to predominantly Western institutions. The main conclusion from the study is that host university’s engagement in hosting mobile faculty coming on short visits seems to be driven predominantly by the neoliberal profit-seeking motives rather than by a more humanistic desire to serve the larger global society by sharing its expertise or to engage in equal and mutually beneficial partnership relationships.

Titularidades y cátedras en Comunicación en España (2000-2019). Distribución, ritmos de promoción, transferencia entre universidades y endogamia

We present a descriptive statistical analysis of the academic career of professors and associate professors in the area of Communication in Spanish public universities during the period 2000-2019. Three phenomena related to academic careers in Communication are studied: first, the distribution of positions by category, sex, and years; second, promotion paths; third, the flows between universities, which show a phenomenon of endogamy. To this end, we identified the appointments of professors and associate professors in the areas of Journalism and Audiovisual Communication and Advertising in the Boletín oficial del Estado (the Spanish official gazette). Our analysis provides an understanding of the role of universities as institutions that hire and train faculty, and the flow of faculty among them. The results show that the recruitment of professors and associate professors in the 20 years studied is irregular in terms of distribution, parity, and allocation of positions over time. In turn, successive legislation has generated a system that reduces faculty mobility and favors endogamy. Resumen Este trabajo es un análisis estadístico descriptivo de la carrera académica de los titulares y catedráticos (funcionarios públicos) del área de Comunicación en España en el periodo 2000-2019. Se estudian tres fenómenos relacionados con la carrera académica en Comunicación. En primer lugar, la distribución de plazas por categoría, sexo y años. A continuación, los ritmos de promoción en esta área, a lo largo de todo el período y diferenciando entre los ritmos antes y después del sistema de acreditación de la Agencia Nacional de Evaluación de la Calidad y Acreditación (Aneca). Finalmente, los flujos entre las universidades donde se forma el claustro y las universidades públicas empleadoras de académicos, así como el fenómeno de la endogamia en el área. Con este fin, se han identificado en el Boletín oficial del Estado los nombramientos de titulares y catedráticos en las áreas de Periodismo y Comunicación Audiovisual y Publicidad. Un análisis a nivel colectivo y desagregado por universidades permite estudiar el rol de las universidades como instituciones que contratan y forman al claustro, y los flujos entre ellas. Los resultados muestran que la contratación de titulares y catedráticos de Comunicación en los 20 años estudiados se revela irregular en cuanto a distribución, paridad y adjudicación de plazas en el tiempo. A su vez, las sucesivas legislaciones han generado un sistema que reduce la movilidad de profesorado y favorece la endogamia.

To Leave or to Stay: Faculty Mobility in the Middle East

Existing research on faculty mobility generally investigates the issue in the context of Western postsecondary institutions. This study adds to the body of knowledge through studying higher education faculty in six Middle Eastern countries. Participants of the study were higher education faculty members in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Out of 600 faculty members initially invited, 139 completed the electronic survey, whichwas administered in the 2017–2018 academic year. The findings show that factors both internal and external to an institution contributed to a faculty member’s decision to stay or leave. It also shows that gender and experience in the GCC Universities had no significant effect on faculty members’ intentions to leave or to stay.

Does Money Accelerate Faculty Mobility? Survey Findings from 11 Research Universities in China

In the context of global innovation systems, it has become a universal law that the resource elements of scientific and technological innovation, such as talents, flow along the track of high efficiency to the regions that can produce high benefits. As faculty in research universities are important resources of scientific and technological innovation, developing countries such as China have sought to accelerate the transnational mobility of faculty by leveraging income. This study endeavors to gain a better understanding of the motivations for and the outcomes of faculty mobility at Chinese research universities and to determine whether attaining higher income levels through academic mobility can be considered a lever for facilitating change and improving the status of the academic profession in China. Using survey data from 445 faculty members at 11 major research universities in China, this study found a significant relationship between mobility frequency and indirect income. The findings also revealed, however that employees’ different attitudes toward income during the process of mobility are a key variable in confirming academic professional boundaries. The findings suggest that more successful mechanisms to attract or retain talented scholars should be developed and that these mechanisms should not focus exclusively on income.

Towards multimodal interactions in the multilingual EFL classroom: Lessons from a COIL experience

Internationalization of higher education has recently gained momentum, and many tertiary education institutions have felt it incumbent upon themselves to foster this trend. Due to lack of resources, student and faculty mobility has not always been a viable option, however. Thus, as an alternative to Internationalization Abroad, Internationalization at Home has gained popularity. Empowering learners by making them interculturally competent is one of the main concerns in this trend. Foreign language education within a curriculum that emphasizes intercultural interaction can, therefore, play significant roles in realizing the internationalization agenda. The present study was therefore designed to explore the nature of such intercultural interactions from a conversation analytic view. It builds upon data collected from audiovisual intercultural exchanges of 16 Japanese and 18 Taiwanese students engaged in a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) program between a Japanese university and a university from Taiwan. The data is used to shed light on the less explored potentials of COIL in bringing together EFL classes from across borders and giving learners the opportunity to engage in intercultural interactions in a virtual multilingual context. The conversation analysis of the video recorded interactions of the learners indicates how they use a variety of multimodal resources to maintain intersubjectivity with their peers from a different cultural background when they evaluate their English proficiency as inadequate. The results also suggest that multimodal and translingual practices frequently occur in classes where learners do not share an L1 and therefore have to be systematically attended to.