In an effort to carry out university reform speedily, the government has submitted bills to the Diet to revise the School Education Law and the National University Corporation Law. The bills are designed mainly to bolster the leadership of university presidents.

The government is aiming for enactment of the bills before the current Diet session ends in June.

Universities in Japan—national, public or private—have been widely criticized as taking too much time to make decisions and being incapable of flexible and expeditious management.

To cope with the changing times, it is crucial for universities to improve their governance, enhance programs to produce well-qualified graduates and expand research activities.

The revision bills focus on reexamining the authority of faculty councils.

The current School Education Law defines a faculty council as a forum to “deliberate on important matters.”

This has been interpreted to mean the council’s authority extends to all matters related to university management, and the council has thus been regarded by many universities as a decision-making organization.

This has resulted in the ability of faculty councils to derail efforts by university presidents to implement drastic reforms if the councils oppose the changes.

The revision bill would limit the faculty council’s role to expressing opinions when a university president makes a decision on important matters. It is reasonable for the bill to clarify legally that the power to decide on university management resides with university presidents and call for reform that would place authority in the hands of the top leader.

International competitiveness

If the presidents properly exercise their authority on personnel and budget matters and recruit proficient researchers, it will enhance the international competitiveness of universities.

When it comes to private universities, different people in some cases serve as executive board directors of incorporated educational institutions, which are parent bodies for universities, and university presidents. In such universities, it is essential to establish a system under which decisions can be made smoothly.

One notable provision of the revision bill for the National University Corporation Law calls for transparency in the election of university presidents.

The current law stipulates that a president shall be elected by a presidential selection committee comprising members from inside and outside the university. Actually, however, in many universities a preliminary election is held to reflect the opinions of faculty members and staff in final voting to select a president.

If the selection of top university leaders is affected by an on-campus factional numbers game, it is questionable whether capable persons can be elected.

Presidents of national universities, which became incorporated entities in 2004, are required to have strong management abilities. The method used to select presidents must be able to evaluate such abilities.

It is understandable that the revision bill calls for working out standards on the selection of university presidents and making them public.

However, if the package of legal revisions is achieved, authority would be concentrated in university presidents, and it would not be easy to replace them midterm, even in cases of mismanagement.

Discussions should be deepened in the Diet about the creation of a system to prevent presidents from exceeding their authority.