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University Accreditation Developments in Japan: Matching or Moving Beyond the US Process?

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Abstract

As of 2004, all universities in Japan must submit to an external accreditation evaluation, to be repeated every 7 years. The universities are to receive detailed written assessments in multiple categories from one of four official accrediting agencies. These assessments are to be publicized. The universities also receive grades: pass, probation, and fail. These reforms, 18 years in the making, were initially intended to imitate practices in the US. However, the changes to Japan's university accreditation practices have gone beyond mimicry; indeed, by incorporating aspects of the Bologna process in Europe, they may even point to the future of US accreditation.

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Notes

  1. Note that this contradicts the student population figures (25–30percent) Christenson provides on p. 130; it would appear that he, here and elsewhere, has confounded ‘public’ with ‘national,’ conflating the two types despite their dissimilarities. Similarly, his extensive discussion of ‘national public universities’ becoming ‘National University Corporations’ (e.g., p. 130) is incorrect in so far as the 2004 policy change in question directly impacted only national universities.

  2. The questions are taken from ‘Daigaku Hyouka no Kokoro,’ a JIHEE presentation by Kubo Takeshi on 30 June, 2006.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences, Iwate University, 3-18-8 Ueda, Morioka, 020-8550, Iwate, Japan

    Bern Mulvey

  2. Morioka Junior College, Iwate Prefectural University, 152-52 Sugo, Takizawa-mura, 020-0193, Iwate-ken, Japan

    Christine Winskowski

  3. AVC Research Office, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, 8140, New Zealand

    Keith Comer

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  1. Bern Mulvey
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Mulvey, B., Winskowski, C. & Comer, K. University Accreditation Developments in Japan: Matching or Moving Beyond the US Process?. High Educ Policy 24, 535–553 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/hep.2011.12

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