Sorimachi
Do you see any pattern of change for Japanese universities?
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Tezuka
To date, Japanese universities have followed the pattern of the nation's
economic growth. A period of increasing population and budget resulted in
business administrators now being the major players in the university world.
The most crucial aspect of intra-university discussion is the distribution
of the budget, and the major players, based in the key departments, compete
for a larger share of the pie. This trend might be terminated with the
introduction of independent legal entity status to the university. The
race for a larger share of the budget will not benefit anyone, unless a
university is recognized as valuable independent entity by the public. The
size of the pie itself has to grow through its own efforts.
Sorimachi
What could be a factor by which growth can materialize?
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Tezuka
I, for one, am of the opinion that leading edge research should be
detached from the university. In Germany, the Max Plank Institution
(consisting of sixty-eight specialized research institutes) is 60 to 70 per
cent financed by the federal budget and the rest comes from private funds.
When one is dealing with leading edge research, money follows. The
advanced research institute at Princeton University has many Nobel Prize
winners, and Mr. Ezaki (a Japanese Nobel Prize winner) has been retained by
IBM, a private firm. I feel it is odd to have an academic hierarchy headed
by Tokyo University. Among the Japanese people, there is such a status
worship mentality, which works against free and practical academic progress
in both the sciences and humanities.
Sorimachi
Are you suggesting that the universities should concentrate on
education, leaving research to other organizations?
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Tezuka
In fact, universities are already too busy handling the huge population
of students and educating individuals who may stay on to succeed the current
teaching staff. There are very few individuals who have jumped from the
traditional framework, going to private corporations and then eventually
returning to universities, introducing the experience they have gained in
the process.
I really feel it is a better idea to detach leading edge research from
universities. In the pre-war era, we had only one such model, the
Physics-Chemistry Institute. Current administrative reform dictates the
integration of the Ministry of Education and the Science and Technology
Agency into one entity, and this change may be reflected in the operation of
universities and research institutions in terms of developing a new
distribution of labor.
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