中央教育審議会と高等教育改革 : 「四六答申」の検討

The prewar Japanese higher education system was closed and exclusive. At the center of this system was the former imperial universities supported by the government, while private universities were not permitted. However, postwar higher education reforms dismantled this closed and exclusive higher education system. Every prefecture now has a national university. In addition, the strict government control that existed in the prewar period has been removed, allowing a large number of private universities to be established. All universities became coeducational, and women's colleges were newly established. Curricula were also changed from specialized courses, and general education was introduced from the U.S. higher education system.
In the 1950s, however, problems began to occur frequently in universities. In 1963, the Central Council for Education under the Ministry of Education issued a report aimed at improving university education. However, these problems did not improve and became more serious. Therefore, in 1967, 20 years after the postwar higher education reforms, the Ministry of Education asked the Central Council for Education to study the issue with the aim of improving the entire school education system in Japan, both systematically and in terms of content.
This book summarizes the deliberative process of the Central Council for Education's 1971 report (commonly known in Japan as the "46-year Report"), with particular focus on its deliberations on universities and higher education. Research on higher education policy in the 1960s and 1970s is insufficient in the study of the history of higher education in Japan. Currently, primary sources are becoming more widely available. In order to examine contemporary higher education reform from a historical perspective, it is extremely important to conduct research on higher education policy in the 1960s and 1970s. As a first step toward this goal, this book aims to provide an overview of higher education policies and their historical documents of the period.