In Japan, incorporation of universities was carried out seven years ago. In a review by the Japanese Ministry of Education, the educational side was assessed positively. Over half of the researchers answered that educational activity, students’ support systems and the satisfaction of students had increased. Also, because of increasing research with private corporations, revenue of those universities had increased. Specifically, a scale of joint research has more than doubled, from 176 yen in 2003 to 362 yen in 2008.

However, incorporation has a possibility to cause neo-liberalism that emphasizes freedom to compete regardless of any differences or gaps. In other words: neo-liberalism puts only the profit as primary and leaves everything else as secondary. If incorporation is carried out, the budget of education will decrease since many of the national/public universities are not a part of the central or local governments any more. Then, education will be dominated by jungle law. Incorporation can cause polarization. In case of Japan, top universities such as The University of Tokyo and Kyoto University are more competitive in world rankings however, the rest of the 70 national universities fell behind.

We have learned about the pros and cons of incorporation. People who are for incorporation mainly insist that increased quality of education is the most important thing to a university. Their opinion is that incorporation will definitely increase the budget. People who are against incorporation of universities primarily say that the national/public universities should keep their publicness of education. It is an old saying that if a person knows his enemy, then he will be ever victorious. Therefore, no matter whether he is for or against the incorporation, they both should try to understand the opponent’s opinions. Considering both merits and demerits of incorporation, decide your choice. We need to think carefully and show interest in problems of incorporation.


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