At the beginning of March, I attended a meeting for people connected to universities. The only topic they discussed was autumnal admission. The University of Tokyo released “The future timing of enrollment―more globally and tougher―(mid‐term summary)”, which seems to have caused a lot of disputes among Universities.

The International Christian University (ICU), which has been implemented autumnal admission for a long time, attracted much attention from the attendees’. The ICU spent some time explaining the following points: (1) They had their 1st enrollment ceremony in September, 1955. (the school was established in April, 1953.), (2) September enrollment paper screening was institutionalized in 1960, (3) The institution is for those who had an ongoing education for two years or more under an educational system outside Japan, including the final year of high school and gained an entrance qualification to university (SAT, IB, DAAD, etc.) or those with the prospect of doing so. Additionally, they need to have sufficient ability in English, which is to be gauged by TOFEL results etc., (4) The admission decision is made by judging the applicant’s ability and aptitude comprehensively based on application documents (an application for admittance, a reason for application, an essay, a high school transcript, an achievement test result, an English proficiency certification and a letter of recommendation).

The mid-term summary made by the University of Tokyo suggests that the introduction of the autumnal admission intends to internationalize the university. The September enrollment system has enabled international students, returnees and students from domestic and overseas international schools, along with exchange students from overseas partner universities who are principally accepted for a year from September as well, to contribute significantly to the development in internationalization, one of the missions the school upholds. Arranging the system that allows autumnal admission surely promotes accepting students who have learned under educational systems outside of Japan. Is autumnal admission a specific remedy for internationalization? Actually, things are not that easy.

I enrolled in the doctoral course at the Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1983, and in my third year, I partly took charge of one faculty course as a teaching fellow. What surprised and impressed me there was that every subject was completed on a single-term basis and each class was opened several times a week. After getting my degree, I returned to Japan and started to teach, and found that nothing had changed since I was an undergraduate student (in the late 1970’s), when almost all subjects ran on through the whole year. In those days, after academic meeting programs, young faculty members who had just returned from America used to get together, go out on the town at night and deplore the inefficiency of the education program.

Recently, an increasing number of universities employ the Semester System (An education program in which a school year is divided into several semesters and each course is completed on a single-semester basis). When I think back on those days I recall how we had a drink and babbled on incessantly, saying “Every week it takes time to review, so I can’t move forward with my class”, “National holidays and events bring us back to the beginning, don’t they?”, but now I feel I am living in a different age. However, close examination sometimes reveals that it is substantially a year-long course that is just divided into “○○○○○Ⅰ”, the first-semester portion, and “○○○○○Ⅱ”, the second-semester portion. According to Mr. So-and-so who attended the meeting mentioned earlier, it is called “a wannabe Semester System”.

Ten days after the meeting, I made a report on the Semester System, the subject numbers and the curriculum of the ICU at a seminar titled “The Substantial Change in the Credit System, and the Evolution of Education and the Course System” that was presided over by the Knowledge Station of the Institute of Regional Studies. In our school, each class is 70 minutes long and principally three-credit classes are opened three times a week and two-credit classes are opened twice a week. In the timetable, there are the following types: a horizontal time zone type (for example, a class is opened in the first period on Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and a vertical type (for example, a class is opened in the fifth, sixth and seventh periods on Thursday). In the latter time frame, subjects including experiments or practices, and subjects taken charge of by part-time teachers are arranged. Additionally, other subjects, when it is considered appropriate to set classes vertically due to the nature of the subjects, can be arranged there.

In addition, there is also another type of time frame for three- credit classes, in which a 105-minute class is opened twice a week (70min×3=105min×2=210 min) under a specific condition such as when a subject is designed for intermediate and upper level students. Each class of the same course is opened twice or three times a week and students can take a limited number of credits during each term-the spring, autumn and winter terms, which means they can enroll in four or five courses during each term. That creates an environment where students study those subjects intensively by reading reference works thoroughly, preparing well, working on a variety of tasks such as discussion papers and group projects.

Faculty members from nearly 50 national, municipal or private colleges and universities participated in the seminar mentioned above. After my report, the host asked all the attendees if each class of the same course is opened more than once in their schools. There was only one school (it is the university that has the faculty of liberal arts like our school) that answered “Yes”. Since more than a few universities employ the semester system in which each course is completed on a term basis and the same class is opened more than once a week, honesty, was a bit of surprise to me. It could be understood that there happened to be a one-sided representation of the universities present there, though.

When internationalizing universities is discussed, the number of international students (sent and accepted), the availability of subjects presented in English and the presence or absence of programs that allow students to take degrees only in English become popular topics for conversation. However, I would say that the first thing to be worked on is to reexamine what the ideal class should be, in other words, constructing a system that can steadily give substance to the credit system.

Those who try to live in the world of the 21st century “more globally and tougher” are first of all required to find problems on their own and maintain a learning attitude even by breaking down the walls between the fields of study in order to solve them. What Japanese Universities have to seriously struggle with now is, I believe, organizing a curriculum that encourages students to cultivate such a quality.

Chinese / Japanese