財務諸表から見た国立大学法人の経営行動 : 格差拡大と縮小均衡

Since the incorporation of national universities in 2004, in which each national university was given corporate status, 18 years have already passed. During this time, national universities underwent rather deep changes in the form of a decrease in the number of full–time teachers and an increase in part-time teachers. This significant shift from the expected pictures of high staff continuity or, conversely, radical reorganization, is as much due to top-down or New Public Management (NPM) reform and shifts in steering as to traditional bottom-up and academically-driven forms of micro-institutional change.
So, it is important to expand the traditional micro-focused questionnaire surveys or interviews to understand management behavior of the national university sector with an awareness of macro forces shaping the public sector as a whole, bringing in financial data and public policy literature. This leads us to explore a panel data analysis of financial statements in which national universities must publish profits and losses every year according to the law of National University Accounting System. As a result of panel data analysis (fixed effect model), we found considerable disparity between national university types in which professor personnel costs are dependent only on operating expenses grants, such universities as teacher training colleges, universities without hospitals, and universities of arts, because of the structural problems concerning their ability to obtain external funds to use freely, compared to universities of sciences and medicine.
In summary, there is an emerging financial issue for the 4th mid-term of National University Corporations and science policy to improve research power of Japan. Specifically, as long as the current competitive environment continues under the control of the Ministry of Finance, universities not suitable for competition, such as human & social sciences, and arts and teacher training colleges, will be left in a state of financial poverty and downward spiral. Furthermore, the factors causing these imbalances are not temporary, and imbalances in fundraising are projected to markedly increase.