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English As a Lingua Franca

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English As a Lingua Franca English as a lingua franca FORUM REPORT 007 English as a Lingua Franca Reexaming Japan in Global Context Forum, Tokyo, Japan, December 15, 2014 Globalization and University Reforms in Japan: Real or Illusory? Takehiko Kariya School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies and Department of Sociology, University of Oxford Foreign observers have long praised the high quality of of Japanese universities in the top 100 places in the World Japanese elementary and secondary education. However, for University Rankings from the existing two institutions to 10 an equally long span of time, Japanese higher education has over just the next 10 years. been looked upon as the weakest link in the system. It is Policymakers have suggested that one primary weakness noteworthy that not only foreign experts, but also most of of Japanese universities (i.e., the source of lower scores) is in the Japanese populace itself seems to agree. Japanese univer- the ‘international outlook’ component of the world rankings sities are frequently derided as mere ‘leisure lands,’ in which composite indicator. For example, the University of Tokyo students enjoy their free time without heavy academic re- was ranked 23rd in the 2014/15 THE evaluation exercise quirements or workloads. with 32.4 points in the international outlook index. In com- Recently, however, the Japanese government, with the full parison, Oxford University was ranked 3rd with an inter- support of the business community, has launched bold poli- national outlook score of 90.7, and the National University cies aimed at reforming university education, citing the pres- of Singapore was ranked 25th overall with a leading 94.9 sures generated by global competition. The ambitious goal is points. For Japanese universities to move up the rankings, to enhance the quality of the system by ‘internationalizing’ policy makers believe that it is critical to improve the inter- Japanese universities. national outlook scores. For this reason, the ‘Global 30’ proj- Two of the most influential recent policies are the ‘Global ect was launched in 2009, with the aim of inviting 300,000 30’ and ‘Super-Global University’ projects. These two poli- international students to Japan. Although the project origi- cies exemplify the pros and cons of an increasing push to use nally planned to fund 30 universities, budget constraints English as a medium of instruction in Japanese universities. limited the number of institutions chosen by the Ministry By analyzing both these policies, and in particular the ‘Su- to 13. The ‘Super Global University’ project started five years per-global University’ project, we can understand the deeper later in 2014 as a funding scheme that aimed to enhance the logic at work and begin to locate problems that are already international compatibility and competitiveness of higher embedded therein. education in Japan. Thirty-seven universities were selected Discourse analysis of project policy documents reveals gov- and are expected to use the project’s funds to take the lead ernment anxiety about Japanese universities’ positions in the in comprehensive internationalization and overall university World University Rankings—so-called ‘league tables’ such as reform. The detailed application forms for the ‘Super Global Times Higher Education (THE) or QS. The Japanese gov- University’ project submitted by those institutions include ernment has set an ambitious target to increase the number numerical data on their goals. Analyses of these data provide FORUM REPORT 007 1 Reexaming Japan in Global Context Figure 1: Percentage of classes taught in foreign languages in 2013 and Figure 2: Percentage of classes taught in foreign languages in 2013 and the future plan in 2023 (undergraduate) the future plan in 2023 (postgraduate) 2013 UG 2023 UG 2013 PG 2023 PG 100 100 90 90 80 80 70 70 60 60 50 50 40 40 30 30 20 20 10 10 0 0 ICU ICU Aizu APU Aizu Keio APU Keio Soka Soka Toyo Toyo Meiji Meiji Hosei Chiba Hosei Chiba Kyoto Kyoto Tokyo Osaka Tokyo Osaka Rikkyo Rikkyo Sophia Sophia Kyushu Kyushu Tohoku Nagoya Tohoku Nagoya Kokusai Kokusai Waseda Waseda Average Average Tsukuba Tsukuba Okayama Hokkaido Okayama Hokkaido Kanazawa Kanazawa Hiroshima Hiroshima Tokyo Arts Tokyo Arts Kumamoto Kumamoto Nara Sentan Nara Tokyo Gaigo Tokyo Nara Sentan Nara Ritsumeikan Tokyo Gaigo Tokyo Ritsumeikan Tokyo Kyogo Tokyo Tokyo Kyogo Tokyo Kanseigakuin Kanseigakuin Kokusai Kyoyo Kokusai Kyoyo Shibaura Kogyo Shibaura Kogyo Kyoto Kogei Seni Kyoto Kogei Seni Tokyo Medical Dental Tokyo Medical Dental Nagaoka Gijutukagaku Nagaoka Gijutukagaku Toyohashi Gijutukagaku Toyohashi Toyohashi Gijutukagaku Toyohashi insights into the ambitions and potential problems inherent classes in foreign languages. However, looking closely at the in these plans. details of the plans that have been submitted, we find some In the application forms for the ‘Super Global Universi- dubious schemes to enable this deep transformation. Specifi- ty’ project, institutions were required to report their latest cally, in their application forms, each institution was asked (2013) and future (i.e. planned for 2023) statistics for the to report the latest (2013) and future (i.e. planned in 2023) percentage of classes taught in foreign languages (in most number (and ratio) of teaching staff who are ‘foreign and cases in English), both at the undergraduate and post-grad- such’ (gaikokujin kyōin nado). Figure 3 shows the case of Uni- uate levels. Figure 1 shows the distribution of this percent- versity X (a pseudonym), a local national university located age of undergraduate courses among the 37 universities se- in the southern part of Japan, as an illustrative example. Fig- lected as members of the ‘Super Global University’ project. ure 3 indicates that there are currently 348 full-time teach- As shown, many institutions plan to nearly triple the pro- ing staff members classified as ‘foreign and such,’ which ac- portion of classes taught in foreign languages over the next counted for 33.4% of the total university full-time teaching ten years (the projected average of 23% in 2023 is 2.9 times staff in 2013. This ratio looks surprisingly high, but we find higher than the average of 8% in 2013). Similarly for post- that it derives from a problematic calculation of this group graduate studies (Figure 2), many universities plan to nearly of full-time teaching staff members. Guidelines attached in double the share of classes taught in foreign languages from the Ministry application form indicate that within the gen- 2013 to 2023 (the projected average of 44% in 2023 is 1.9 eral category of ‘foreign and such’ there are sub-categories for times greater than the average of 23% in 2013). These figures Japanese nationals who have gained overseas experience in show that in order to improve their international outlook one of three ways: (i) those who obtained an academic de- scores, many ‘Super Global’ universities have set extremely gree (Bachelor’s, Master’s, or Doctoral), (ii) those who spent ambitious goals to ‘internationalize’ their course offerings. time doing research and/or teaching in institutions in foreign To achieve these goals, each of the university blueprints countries for more than one year but less than three years, also shows an expansion in the number of staff that can teach and (iii) those with more than three years of experience in Figure 3: ‘Foreign and such’ faculty at University X Figure 4: Percentage of foreign teachers and Japanese with 1-3 years abroad among all fulltime teachers in 2023 % of Foreign teachers 2023 % of Japanese 1-3 yrs abroad 2023 1200 0.7 1000 Foreign nationals 0.6 Japanese nationals, foreign degree 0.5 800 ‘Foreign Japanese nationals, 3+ years abroad and 0.4 such’ 600 0.3 Japanese nationals, 1-3 years abroad 0.2 400 0.1 0 200 Japanese nationals, no foreign ICU Aizu APU Keio Soka Toyo Meiji Hosei Chiba Kyoto Tokyo Osaka Rikkyo Sophia Kyushu Tohoku Nagoya Kokusai Waseda Average Tsukuba experience Nagaoka… Okayama Hokkaido Kanazawa Toyohashi… Hiroshima Tokyo Arts Kumamoto Nara Sentan Nara Tokyo Gaigo Tokyo Ritsumeikan Tokyo Kyogo Tokyo Kanseigakuin Kokusai Kyoyo Tokyo Medical… 0 Shibaura Kogyo 2013 2023 Kyoto Kogei Seni 2 FORUM REPORT 007 English as a lingua franca foreign institutions. Among these three groups, the second will stimulate students intellectually and raise the quality of constitutes the majority—about 61% of the total number education, particularly at the graduate level. of the ‘foreign and such’ group—although this group could This brief analysis highlights the question of whether or have simply met the requirement through two sabbatical not recent policies aimed at internationalizing Japanese uni- trips abroad. In a parallel fashion, the university plans to versities can change the status quo. In answering that ques- greatly increase the number of ‘foreign and such’ teaching tion we must also understand that only a few universities and staff over the next decade, but foreign national staff account departments truly face ‘real’ international competition. The for only 120 (15.6%) out of the 770 ‘foreign and such’ hires majority of institutions and departments will compete only that are planned by 2023. In contrast, the number of staff domestically for the foreseeable future, i.e. for jobs, funds, with 1 to 3 years of experiences abroad will increase by 430 and Japanese-student enrolments. For these universities positions (55.8% of the total ‘foreign and such’). It is doubt- there is little incentive to internationalize teaching. Persis- ful that Japanese nationals with only short-term research ac- tent doubts about the continuity of the policy (and especially tivities and little or no teaching experience abroad will be about the sustainability of its budget) also make universi- able to teach high quality, advanced academic classes in a ties hesitant to undertake deep structural reforms. There is foreign language. a high risk of non-implementation.
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