According to the "academic system" and "Imperial University Order", after Tokyo University, Japan has successively established several comprehensive universities, including Imperial University of Kyoto, Imperial University of Tohoku, Kyushu University and Imperial University of Hokkaido. During the Second World War, Japanese universities were forced to carry out militaristic education, which became a tool to serve the government's aggressive policy.
After the war, with the democratic reform of education, according to the basic education law and the school education law. 1On August 5th, 945, Japan accepted the Potsdam Proclamation and declared its unconditional surrender. Under the banner of the United Nations Army, American troops entered Japan and occupied Japan in an all-round way. During the full-scale American occupation (1945.9— 1952.4), according to the will of the American government, Japan carried out all-round democratic reforms in social politics, economy, military affairs and education. 1949 established a new university. The new university is formed by the reorganization and merger of the old university, pre-university, junior college and higher normal school.
After great changes and development before and after the war, there are four main types of higher education institutions in Japan: universities, short-term universities, colleges and specialized schools.
I. Universities
The disciplines in Japanese universities are different from those in China University. They are named after non-scientific categories. For example, the disciplines of science include mathematics, physics and chemistry. The most basic unit of Japanese universities is "lecture". Each lecture includes 1 professors and associate professors, 1-3 lecturers and teaching assistants. Generally, there are four kinds of courses: general education courses, foreign language courses, healthy physical education courses and professional education courses. The credit system is implemented in teaching subjects.
Japanese university courses have the following characteristics:
1. Attach importance to quality education and basic education. After entering the school, students have just begun to spend two years on this education. Even in the later two years of professional education, we attach great importance to the combination of basic knowledge and professional knowledge.
2. The course content is comprehensive. The rapid development of modern science and technology has promoted the mutual penetration between disciplines and the emergence of many marginal disciplines, which requires higher education to try to avoid too detailed professional differentiation, but to have links between disciplines, constantly explore interdisciplinary courses, and make curriculum development comprehensive.
3. Expand the scope of elective courses. In order to meet the needs of students' personality development and cultivate their initiative in learning, Japanese universities generally reduce compulsory courses and increase many elective courses.
4. The curriculum of each department is flexible and has its own characteristics. According to the characteristics of Japanese universities, each department should not stick to one model in the course content, but should strive for diversification in the arrangement of lectures, compulsory courses and elective courses, as well as the teaching systems and forms of credits, internships, graduation and papers.
Second, short-term universities
Short-term university is a new form of Japanese higher education. After the Second World War, when Japan carried out the reform of higher education system, it transformed the old universities before the war into four-year new universities, and temporarily designated some universities that did not have the conditions to be transformed into new universities as short-term universities. Short-term universities have trained a large number of intermediate technicians for industrial development and economic recovery, flexibly adapted to changes in industrial structure and promoted economic development. 1964, the Japanese parliament formally recognized the legal status of short-term universities by amending the School Education Law. In 2003, there were 525 short-term universities in Japan, including national universities 13, public universities 49 and private universities 463, with 2500065 students, including 45 national universities15, public universities 17999 and private universities 2755/kloc-.
Short-term universities in Japan have the following characteristics:
1. The training objectives and specifications are clear, and skills training is highly valued.
2. Most of them are private, and the funds mainly come from monthly tuition income and enterprise fund-raising, so we pay special attention to teaching quality and efficiency, otherwise it will be difficult to maintain.
3. The scale is exquisite. Most short-term universities are in small and medium-sized cities with only 700-800 students. Small and flexible, it is convenient to adjust the direction of running schools in time according to the needs of social and economic development.
4. The employment rate is high. Short-term college graduates have strong practical ability and are very popular with enterprises. The employment rate is almost 100%. In addition, short-term college graduates can exchange credits with universities and transfer easily, so they are particularly popular.
Third, colleges and universities:
Japan's junior college is a special school, which recruits junior high school graduates and implements a five-year continuous academic system. Three years of high school are connected with two years of short-term universities, and the level of graduates is equivalent to that of short-term university graduates. Its school-running goal is to "deeply teach professional skills and cultivate the necessary abilities in the profession." There are more than 20 disciplines such as engineering, printing, navigation and wireless communication. The teaching content of colleges and universities is related to industry and transportation, so most of them are boys and girls are generally less than 5%, which is just the opposite of short-term universities. College graduates are very popular with industrial and mining enterprises because of their strong practical ability, and the demand is often in short supply.
Fourth, specialized schools.
Specialized schools are very complicated educational institutions in Japan's higher education system. The teaching in junior colleges is the most flexible, and the study period is mostly 2 years or 3 years, and some can even be as long as 4 years, but some are as short as 1 year. Specialized schools recruit high school graduates and offer various professional courses, including
Every school has flexible arrangements according to social needs. There are more girls in junior colleges, and the number of people studying specialized courses is the largest, accounting for about1/4; Followed by housekeeping, accounting for about1/5; Industry again, accounting for about1/6; Commerce accounts for about 65,438+0/65,438+00. The purpose of junior colleges is to obtain professional qualifications and skill appraisal stipulated by the state, which is the feature that distinguishes junior colleges from other universities.
Many people often don't think it is an institution of higher education because of its flexibility in the length of schooling and specialty setting, as well as its small size and few personnel. However, the Foundation of Specialized Schools 1976 10 promulgated by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan recognizes that it belongs to higher education institutions. There are 3,300 specialized schools in Japan with 79 143 1 students. In 2000, there were 35,565,438+0 schools with 750,824 students. In 2003, there were 3,439 schools, including 90 state schools and 208 public schools. Private 3141; There are 78,665,438+035 students in school, including 65,438+0265,438+095 in public schools, 30,583 in public schools and 343,357 in private schools.
As a close neighbor of China, Japan has always followed the example of China. However, after the Meiji Restoration, Japan made great efforts to learn from the West. In order to introduce advanced western science and technology, vigorously develop and popularize education, make its education level quickly surpass that of China, and the university enrollment rate is far ahead in the world. The development of Japanese education in modern times has much to learn from China.