A stupid program. I am more scared with these sensationalists in the program who probably did not study seriously in the past than the presumably alarming facts.
Why do not they include the number of graduate students? Obviously these number probably increased or are stable. As far as I know there are quite many people are in PhD programs in other countries. That is what matters most in the US education. No need to watch this crap. Superficial stats do not solve any things.
Some highlights from “Higher Education in Japan Higher Education in JapanHigher Education” They should be able to write better English, though that is not the point of the report.
“Outline of measures for “300,000 International Students Plan”
1. To invite international students to study in Japan
>Motivation for studying in Japan and expansion of the one-stop service>
$ To actively provide information about studying in Japan.
$ To strengthen the consultative function for students willing to study in Japan.
$ To enrich overseas Japanese language education and other measures.2. To improve entrances including entrance examination and admission to university and Japan
>To facilitate studying in Japan>
$ To strengthen universities’ abilities to provide information
$ To promote admission before students’ arrival in Japan.
$ To promote the settlement of various procedures before students’ arrival in Japan.
$ To have universities strictly manage their registrations and simplify immigration inspection etc. and other measures.
3. To promote the globalization of universities etc.
>To make universities more attractive>
$ To predominantly develop Universities as centers for Internationalization (30).
$ To increase courses conducted only in English.
$ To promote double degree programs, short-term overseas study programs and others.
$ To strengthen specialized organizational systems including universities etc. and other measures.
4. To create an acceptance environment
>Efforts to create an environment where students can feel at ease to concentrate on their study.
$ To make it possible to provide students with accommodation for a year or less after their arrival in Japan.
$ To improve and utilize the Japanese government scholarship student system etc.
$ To support and promote exchange activities with local communities, businesses, etc.
$ To enrich Japanese language education in Japan.
$ To give livelihood support to international students etc. and other measures.
5. To promote the social acceptance of students after graduation/completion.
>Globalization of the Japanese society>
$ Industry, government and academia cooperate to support students in seeking jobs or starting enterprises.
$ To consider clarification of the visa status and reworking of students’ permitted period of residence.
$ To enrich follow-up activities after students return to their own countries and other measures.
$ “Outline of measures for “300,000 International Students Plan”
The number of graduate students more than doubled in the past 20 years while the population of that age group decreased significantly. The older generation might question of the qualification and quality of these students. While younger generations argue that they are working harder and smarter, and the advance of technologies gives them greater advantage over their previous generations. This type of generational conflicts probably existed even before human started using fire if they lived long enough. All the generations think they are living in a special moment.
The number of Japanese who study abroad is not decreasing when the number of students is factored into the equation. Over all people are now studying many different places as the price of education in developed countries become prohibitively high. Despite constant political hostility between Asian neighbors, many Japanese find opportunities in these countries.
[PDF] 日本人の海外留学者数 … 76,464 ← 日本人の海外留学者数
[PDF] 日本人学生等の海外留学
What is Globish??? There are many definitions. I just collected information I can find on the net.
“It is designed for trivial efficiency, always, everywhere, with everyone.”
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/06/12/glob-ish.html
I wasn’t alone in noticing this change. In 2007 I came across an article in the International Herald Tribune “the worldwide dialect of the third millennium.” Nerrière, posted to Japan with IBM in the 1990s, had noticed that non-native English speakers in the Far East communicated in English far more successfully with their Korean and Japanese clients than British or American executives. Standard English was all very well for Anglophones, but in the developing world, this non-native “decaffeinated English”—full of simplifications like “the son of my brother” for “nephew,” or “words of honor” for “oath”—was becoming the new global phenomenon. In a moment of inspiration, Nerrière christened it “Globish.” about a French-speaking retired IBM executive, Jean-Paul Nerrière, who described English and its international deployment as
……
……
This is not the end of Babel. The world, “flatter” and smaller than ever before, is still a patchwork of some 5,000 languages. Native speakers still cling fiercely to their mother tongues, as they should. But when an Indian and a Cuban want to commission medical research from a lab in Uruguay, with additional input from Israeli technicians—as the Midwestern U.S. startup EndoStim recently did—the language they will turn to will be Globish.
The great PhD scam: Jordan Ellenberg
http://www.bostonphoenix.com/alt1/archive/styles/97/03/06/degrees.html
“We dangle our three magic letters before the eyes of these predestined victims, and they swarm to us like moths to an electric light. They come at a time of life when failure can no longer be repaired easily and when the wounds it leaves are permanent . . . “
This is a presentation given by Dr. Hisashi Kobayashi. I have extracted most of the text in English. Please read his original and check his web pages for more insightful comments.
Problems that Japan faces today
（現在日本が直面する課題）
Hisashi Kobayashi
（小林久志）
October 23, 20091) Declining Ranking of Japan’s GDP per capita:
2) Japan’s Deteriorating EducationJapan was a country with a well educated and highly motivated workforce, but not any
longer. English education is disastrous2) Transform Japanese organizations open and global
3) Rapidly Declining Industrial Competitiveness.Observations and analysis:
1) Japan’s industrial and education system worked well while Japan was in the imitation and catch‐up mode, but Japan kept this old system too long.
2) Japan’s leaders (industry, government and academia) did not recognize the importance nor made serious efforts to produce ideas that could create new industry and jobs.
3) Japanese institutions and organizations are closed and inward looking. Many of them do not have visionary leaders and lack the human resources that can create new ideas
and new business. Japan has been primarily good at perfecting known technologies.4) Japanese universities and institutions do not make serious effort to attract and retain top talents from abroad.
5) A majority of young Japanese (men in particular) do not seem to have any great ambition, drive, or confidence. Who are to blame?
6) Japan has not taken seriously the critical importance of Ph.D. level education.
7) Lack of entrepreneurship spirit.
What should Japan do? Continue Reading
College instructors are living on food stamps and paid less than janitors. This cannot be good for college students, he argues.
Confessions of a Tenured Professor
May 11, 2010By Peter D.G. Brown“I must confess right off that I did not become a contingent labor activist until I turned 60, a mere six years ago. Until then, I was a fairly typical senior professor, passionately involved in teaching my students and interacting with my tenured colleagues on a variety of faculty governance committees. I have also pursued a fairly active research agenda. In addition to publishing my own scholarly articles, I have edited over a hundred books dealing with modern German literature, Jewish history and women’s studies. This year saw the publication of the third book I have written on Oskar Panizza, the 19th-century German author …
….
I’m sure my tenured colleagues would find it totally unacceptable if they could be told at the end of any semester that they should simply leave, that there was no value to their accumulated expertise, thank you, because the college wished to hire a fresh young face at a lower salary.”
It seems all the industries in developed countries are on the verge of a mass extinction. But science and engineer disciplines look more promising or do they?
I encountered quite interesting articles. I was aware of the risks involving in going to graduate school. At least no physics and mathematics professor I know recommended me to go to graduate school without talking about risks. Or probably no one really recommended me to go to grad school even though I never asked their advice either. They told us that you will see other people who just do any given tasks easily and make you think their brain are made of unknown materials etc. Also many books already informed me the hardships of graduate schools.
But it is quite nice to see some one writes so clearly about the danger of going to graduate in humanity. I am really not in humanity but many things are true in science as well.
Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don’t Go By Thomas H. Benton
The Big Lie About the ‘Life of the Mind’
What to Advise Unemployed Graduates
Graduate School? Socrates Would Approve
An ‘Unsavory’ Appraisal of the Humanities Market
He described horrific life in graduate school, but life can be much worse than he described. Any case, no matter what people write, I would go to graduate school in science or engineer even if I had a chance to change my life completely. Of course I would plan it better than before. Depending on the topic of studies, scientists may show no sympathy to difficulties of graduates from humanity disciplines. Some of the topics they study seem to be just an extension of hobby, but the real value of education is hard to measure.
A MB
A is very useful for people to understand business analytically. But if one is really serious about theories then you do economics and mathematics. Except serious prominent schools, a MBA is one of easiest cash cows for many. For business people who teach them, it is good opportunities to sell their company and possibly to recruit them.
In a professional program, as long as they are accepted, pay a ridiculous amount of tuition and study normally, they can graduate. Many people in a professional program encounter difficulties in the beginning but their difficulties are not insurmountable. Most of the people will achieve a happy Hollywood ending in the end. Or what is the failing rate in B-schools?
Getting a PhD is a totally different from getting such a professional degree. At least that is how many PhD’s see such a degree. Many people who failed a PhD program or failed to see any meaning of the program often switch to a MBA and they usually do well. Or I do not know any one who failed a MBA but did very well in a PhD in science or engineer. Continue Reading
Waterloo is located 100 km west of Toronto. No one will stop by unless they are coming to universities or high tech companies since no particular attraction lures tourists. But it is a good place to get things done and lead high quality life without active night life. It has plenty of places to play soccer. When I was in Canada, I took nature and greens for granted. A Kurdish man told me he would never see such beautiful playing fields in Iraq. It is beautiful but it is flat as well. An often cited excuse for Waterloo is that it is just 2 hours away from Toronto. But from Waterloo, it will take more than an hours to get to Grey hound bus station. There is a Japanese culture club but I went there only a few occasions. It is mostly for undergrads and those grads who just come there for an exchange program and Canadians who like Japanese stuffs. These days that means they like games and mangas and not traditional cultural things, I think. US people have more stronger interest in Japan than Canadians in general in the east.
University of Waterloo, Ont, Ca was on Globe, Asahi.
ScienceCareers, in Science, gave me useful quick guidance about graduate schools and postdocs. Their information shed light on various aspects of the issue. Here are some highlights and links from the magazine so please read the original articles since they are open articles.
Science Careers (keys “Graduate school”) Here you see the entries about graduate schools.
“even at its best, graduate school can be a supremely unnerving experience. And at its worst, the pressure can kill you.”
“By the time you finish a Ph.D., you will be several years older and drenched in blood, sweat, and tears. Will it have been worth it?” Continue Reading
Non-Japanese often, if not always, think English of Japanese sucks. In general it does sucks, I must to admit after watching some UN meeting video; especially that of some politicians and also journalists of second class papers.
They — should I say we? — may become defiant about their poor English skill; particularly some Japanese English teachers, judging from information from the web pages written in Japanese. Some Japanese are not even aware of how bad their oral communication is while many are totally aware of it.
Many of my friends, who do mathematics and physics, told me that they often do not understand a presentation given by Japanese, while their contents are sufficiently interesting enough to attract serious attention. I went to Boston University a while ago for a meeting for system biology. Many graduate students from Kyoto U gave a talk but some of them are horrible in presentation style and English. In other occasion, I did see many good presentations by Japanese, but some people just did not understand the questions at all. Some time a questioner got angry. During a long meeting, if you give an incomprehensible talk then people will just go to sleep to recover energy or just go to restroom.
Now let’s see what they are saying.
English Proficiency: Japan vs. the Philippines
I see his point. Comparing Japan and Philippine, however, is not meaningful, since their social and economic structures are totally different. They have every reason to learn English, but many Japanese regard English as a hobby. Also Philippine has 171 languages. So English is a tool to communicate among different groups. Japan has one. If other minor languages like Ainu, Okinawa and Korean are counted then it has 4.
There are highly motivate non-Japanese English teachers around there. But, to be honest, who is teaching in English in Japan? I know many of my friends who went to teach English abroad from Canada and US. Some of them might have been dreaming about teaching since they were 3. But most of them are teaching opportunistically. Like, “Well I finished my college but do not know I want to do in my life. Humm, going to Japan might be fun and it will give me some time to think about my future. Also I can see an exotic country.”
Most of Japanese are not well prepared to communicate in English but many English teachers from abroad are also totally unprepared to teach English effectively in a foreign country and just feel frustrated. A teacher cannot teach students who are not intrinsically interested in any subject. They however can not teach when they themselves consider their job as an extension of a hobby.
Of course, Japanese do have a lot more things to learn.
Using English grammar to process
“But what if students’ desire to “talk to the foreigner” was actually (at least in part) a desire to use (English) language to create meaning?
Something I should realize by now that has probably been sadly lacking in their experience of English language education.”
To sum up, Japanese are too passive. Fair enough. Continue Reading
Undergraduate and graduate
People have different experience in school but some things are also common; we can learn many things from the people who went through. I went to universities in Canada and the States both in undergrad and graduate and found many good books and articles in the web that seem useful. These days you can also Google by yourself to find many stories in webs and blogs. When I was doing graduate study I found a book in a library and it is my favorite (1). This book is based on experience by many people so you can glimpse a wide range of graduate school life. Here are some books I checked.
It is for a science prof but the following book is really good; you can see the prof side of graduate life.
For an interview book, I think this book is useful,
This is the book I had with me when I came here for my interview; I should have read more papers though. Continue Reading
A Pillow Diary of an Expatriate Scientist 