The goal of this study is to explore the challenges of international collaboration in higher education activities in Japan by identifying the management frameworks and elements necessary to run sustainable, quality-assured, internationally collaborative activities. Internationalization was examined from three perspectives: collaboration between a university’s headquarters and its departments, program management, and quality assurance. A qualitative case study design was used that involved interviews with 48directors of collaborative international higher education programs. Regarding intra-university collaboration, it was found that there were four major system types divided into eight subtypes: 1. Top-down; (A) Leaving the job to departments, (B) Control, and (C) Ownership; 2. Bottom-up; (A) Approval and (B) Independent; 3. Acting as one; and 4. Cooperation; (A) Regional and (B) Field. The most frequent subtype was “Approval” and the most successful subtype was “Independent.” Regarding program management, many institutions have mature systems, but even these systems found it difficult to achieve accreditation by external agencies. To enable Japanese higher education institutions to survive in the global market, central leadership that encourages departmental independence is necessary. Entrepreneurialism, whereby not only executives but also academics and administrators explicitly seek out new strategies is a key element in Japanese higher education institutions.
The goal of this paper was to explore the directions for a Japanese Qualifications Framework (JQF) through the collationof Japanese Government expert viewpoints.This study used a qualitative case study design involving interviews with 15 Japanese government officials. It was foundthat Japan continues to haveproblems with academic degrees and licensing framework and system. Many Japanese government experts believed that Japan needed a qualifications framework and system that could function both domestically and internationally, however, Japan has an insufficient qualifications framework and system which has led to weak competitiveness for Japanese experts. To resolve these issues, a Japanese qualifications system needs (1) to have pathways toward higher skill levels from work-based experience to higher education and (2) to broaden pathways allowing for the transfer of Japanese domestic qualifications to international framework qualifications.It is concluded that to build these pathways, National Qualifications Framework is needed as a common language and a basic framework to make the qualifications more transparent and to align domestic and international qualification standards. The Japanese government should enter into a discussion about JQF seriously with stakeholders in education, industry, and government with the aim of improving higher education programs for experts to ensure domestic and international competitiveness.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.