1990年代以降の日本におけるアジア高等教育研究の展開 <論考><創立30周年記念特集 : 高等教育研究の回顧と展望>

Ten years ago, the present writer reviewed research results concerning Asian higher education published in the post-war period of Japan. In the survey (hereafter referred as the "previous survey") 716 books and papers published during 45 post-war years were reviewed and analyzed. This paper, as a sequel to the previous survey, discusses how researches on Asian higher education have developed in this country since the 1990s and to establish the significance of the academic achievement as well as the failures in this field. Subsequently it attempts to explore meaningful directions for the development of further studies.

Following the previous survey, the method used in this survey was to collect and analyze as many published research results as possible. For this purpose various bibliographic indices were utilized including: (1) the National Diet Library's Bibliographic Index; (2) the Educational Index of the National Institute for Educational Research's Library; (3) the Bibliography of Oriental Studies of the Documentation and Information Center for Chinese Studies at the Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University; (4) Research Information for International and Comparative Education (RICE) by Japan Comparative Education Society. In addition, related journals of academic societies including the Japan Society for the Study of Education, the Japan Comparative Education Society, the Japan Society of Educational Sociology and the Japan Society of Educational History were also examined. In searching and collecting related books and papers, as long as they were published in Japan since 1990, other conditions such as whether (1) the language used was either Japanese or any foreign language, (2) the author was either Japanese or foreign, or (3) the paper was either original or translated, were not taken into consideration.

In this way, 402 related research results in total (30 books and 372 articles) were identified. About half of them, 203 (50.5%), center on higher education in China, followed by 54 (13.4%) on South Korea. An overwhelming majority of the studies concern the present situation of Asian higher education, with historical studies accounting for merely 63 (16.4%); in particular, there were almost no studies concerning the premodern period.

Some remarkable features can be summarized as follows. Compared with the previous survey, there has been an obvious quantitative expansion as well as qualitative improvement of the studies since the 1990s. In terms of content, introductory or overviewing papers including general description of individual country's higher education system or sketches of a particular university have decreased and in contrast more specific research results have increased. Large number of studies (about one fourth of the total) concern studying abroad and international exchange as in the previous survey. However, there also appeared as a new tendency papers treating higher education from the perspective of international assistance. Another remarkable feature is that numerous papers (about one third of the whole) were written by those from Asian countries staying in Japan, particularly Chinese and Korean students and scholars. In this respect we can see progress of "internationalization" in the study of Asian higher education in Japan.