A survey report submitted by Chiba University to a working group of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology revealed that Western students are more motivated to learn than in Japan and that practical education is being promoted.There is a big difference in securing research support staff and industry-academia collaboration, and it is necessary to urgently work to correct the disparity.
The survey was conducted from November to December 7, targeting the departments and majors in the seven major fields of engineering at national, public and private universities in Japan, and companies with more than 100 employees who are hiring science and engineering personnel. At the same time, we visited a total of 2016 universities and educational institutions in the United States and Germany, and interviewed 11 domestic institutions that surveyed overseas universities.
According to the report, students in the United States and Germany are highly motivated to study and are subject to rigorous examinations, while in Japan there is a tendency for academic ability to decline due to the full enrollment of universities, and Japanese companies also justify their grades on campus. It was confirmed that it was not evaluated.
The curriculum of the university was set with a high degree of freedom in the United States and Germany without any restrictions on the departments and grades, and the ratio of project-type classes to all classes was very high.Moreover, the content of the lessons was very practical, and it was conspicuous to acquire the skills necessary to solve specific themes, but the number of practical education in Japan was still small.
While online education in the United States is large and of high quality, Japan is limited in number and has a low attendance rate.
In terms of industry-academia collaboration, both the United States and Germany are very close, and while there are many staff from industry, Japan continues to be in a situation that cannot be said to be close.
In the United States, there are about five times as many staff to support research as in Japan, and while there are specialists who are strong in collaboration with companies, there are few staff other than faculty members in Japan, and there is a shortage of faculty members in charge in the mathematical and data science departments. doing.