From reform-admin@ed.niigata-u.ac.jp Sun Jun 10 19:57 JST 2001 Received: from cosmos.ed.niigata-u.ac.jp (cosmos.ed.niigata-u.ac.jp [133.35.176.6]) by sakaki.math.tohoku.ac.jp (8.9.3/3.7W) with ESMTP id TAA19916 for ; Sun, 10 Jun 2001 19:57:15 +0900 (JST) Received: from cosmos.ed.niigata-u.ac.jp (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by cosmos.ed.niigata-u.ac.jp (8.9.3/3.7W) with ESMTP id SAA24463; Sun, 10 Jun 2001 18:39:32 +0900 (JST) Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2001 18:39:06 +0900 From: Toru Tsujishita Reply-To: reform@ed.niigata-u.ac.jp Subject: [reform:03524] 海外への転送依頼 To: reform@ed.niigata-u.ac.jp Message-Id: X-ML-Name: reform X-Mail-Count: 03524 X-MLServer: fml [fml 2.2.1]; post only (only members can post) X-ML-Info: If you have a question, send e-mail with the body "# help" (without quotes) to the address reform-ctl@ed.niigata-u.ac.jp; help= X-Mailer: Macintosh Eudora Version 4.3.2-J X-Sender: tujisita@mailhost.math.sci.hokudai.ac.jp Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Precedence: bulk Lines: 431 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-2022-jp" Content-Length: 20298 reform ML の皆さま 以下の内容に賛同される方は、海外のお知りあいに転送してくださるか、 独自のメッセージを作成し発信してくださいますよう、お願い致します。 辻下 徹 北海道大学大学院理学研究科数学専攻 〒060-0810 札幌市北区北10条西8丁目 TEL and FAX 011-706-3823 tujisita@math.sci.hokudai.ac.jp http://fcs.math.sci.hokudai.ac.jp/tjst ---------------------------------------------------------------------- June 10th, 2001 Dear Colleague, If you find the message below somewhat out of place, please accept my apology for this intrusion on your time. In 1999, the Japanese Government adopted a policy to make 99 national universities into a new kind of public corporations, called "Independent Administrative Corporations" (*1), which are very similar to Quango(*2) in Britain. Although many academic institution and societies, including Mathematical Society of Japan, and individual researchers have expressed strong misgivings about the proposed policy, the Government has not changed its mind and intends to start implementing the new system in a few years. In the new system, the universities are forced, because of the minus-sum game in obtaining the budgets, to compete with each others, so that the cooperation of researchers among different universities will be strongly discouraged. We fear also that international cooperation will decline, since universities will be required to promise the number of patents they will obtain in five years. This is a very badly thought through policy presumably coming out due to the impatience of bureaucracies confronting the current economical difficulties of Japan. If you share our apprehension after reading the attached documents, please help us by sending messages of concern to the Prime Minister Koizumi: http://www.iijnet.or.jp/cao/kantei/foreign/comment.html, to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology voice@mext.go.jp, and to Japan Association of National Universities janu@iris.dti.ne.jp. Please help us also by forwarding this letter to those who might have concern over this issue. Toru Tsujishita Professor, Department of Mathematics, Hokkaido Universeity Kita 10 Nishi 8, Sapporo 060-0810 JAPAN Tel & Fax +81-11-727-3705 tujisita@math.sci.hokudai.ac.jp http://fcs.math.sci.hokudai.ac.jp/tjst/index.html *1 The basic concepts are clearly described in the Final Report of the Administrative Reform Council, December 3, 1997 http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/971228finalreport.html Recently they are officially called Independent Administrative Institutions (IAIs), e.g. in "More Transparent Administration" http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/central_government/03_more.html http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/central_government/ pages prepared by the Government. More informaion in http://fcs.math.sci.hokudai.ac.jp/dgh/e-index.html *2 http://www.cabinet-office.gov.uk/quango/index/whatis.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents of enclosure (1) A Call to Support the People's Network to Protect the Autonomy of Japan's National Universities (2) PROCLAMATION of the Board of directors of Japan Mathematical Society (A provisional unauthorized translation by Toru Tsujishita) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) A Call to Support the People's Network to Protect the Autonomy of Japan's National Universities http://pegasus.phys.saga-u.ac.jp/znet/pleae.html Japan's national universities have a hundred year history, but at present their academic freedom is under siege due to the government's recent attempts to implement the "Independent Administration Agency" policy. This policy will not only affect national, public and private universities, but will have repercussions for all Japanese people. In order to stop this unjust government policy we seek to build a coalition that crosses professional lines, political parties, and nationalities. In doing so, we call upon all those who value freedom and care about free speech and academic autonomy. What is this Independent Administration Agency? This primary purpose of the proposed administrative system is to remove and separate the functions of establishing educational objectives, planning, and enforcement from the existing institutions and place these prerogatives in the hands of the Tokyo government. Consequently, the Minister of Education will determine and define what ought to be the universities' "intermediary objectives." It will then be incumbent on the Independent Administration Agency to submit a plan to achieve these goals over a period of time. These plans will then be subject to the Minister's approval and the universities will be evaluated on their performance in achieving the prescribed plans. This policy will furthermore give the Minister the power to control the funding of a university and the right to shut it down. Past Opposition by the Ministry of Education Initially, the Ministry of Education opposed the Independent Administration Agency policy; however, yielding to pressure, two years ago, the Ministry of Education changed its stance and decided to approve it. The Association of National Universities that is supposed to be responsible for protecting the autonomy and academic freedom of its universities is also taking a questionable stance. In response to these recent developments, the Association has apparently participated in discussions about a survey that was designed by the Ministry of Education's Department of Sciences to further the implementation of this policy change. In contrast to its publicly stated opposition to the policy, such activities by the Association reveal a very ambiguous stance. Both of these bodies have turned their backs on the people by ignoring requests to clarify their responsibilities in this matter. The Consequences of this Independent Administration Agency Despite the misleading use of the term "independent," the implementation of this administrative system will bring about the exact opposite, by placing all national universities under the direct management and control of the government. This is a clear violation of the twenty-third clause of the Constitution which guarantees the autonomy of universities to protect their academic freedom. It is also a clear violation of the tenth clause of the Fundamental Education Law that forbids the "improper control" of education. This policy will significantly influence university research and education. The content of education will be uniformly standardized and there is a risk that research will be pursued only for the purpose of obtaining short term results. For example, at present, eight of Japan's national universities are ranked among the top ten in the world in terms of producing the highest number of research papers in the field of chemistry. Japan's research universities currently play an important role internationally, but under the new system such a standard will be difficult to maintain. But above all, by subjecting universities to the threat of being shut down, the vital function of the university to speak out on matters of concern for the society will be lost. What will become of Japan if we cannot protect the freedom of speech and academic freedom? It was only a few decades ago that many people in Japan and in countries nearby experienced terrible suffering as a result of the war caused by our own government. A Concern that Extends beyond National Universities The tuition increase for national universities will threaten equal access to education. By increasing the numbers of incoming students at public universities based on management considerations, the quality of education is at risk. Increasing the number of students at public universities will, in turn, decrease the number of students who pay to attend private universities that, already, are not as financially stable as public universities. The Independent Administration Agency will not only impact national universities, but also will aim to regulate all public universities. If national universities lose their freedom this will surely have repercussions for private universities. Calling on the People to Voice their Will to Expand the Freedom of Universities We must aim towards reforming the universities by abolishing the various forms of bureaucratic regulation and expanding the freedoms and rights of the universities and those who work within them. It is also imperative to expand the rights of university students. By doing so, we aim to fulfill the 1998 UNESCO Declaration of Higher Education that calls for the independence of universities to enable them to perform their vital role as critical forces in society*. In order to do so, the people must voice their opinions to preserve the academic freedom of the national universities. Nothing is determined yet On several occasions the mass media have reported that this Independent Administration Agency is already an established fact. But this matter has not even begun to be discussed in the Diet, and by stating that it is a "decided actuality" ignores the fundamental legal procedures of our nation. If the people raise their voices and take action, we can stop this destruction of our national universities. We ask all of you to join with us in this network to protect the people's universities. May 1, 2001 Petition of Support for the People's Network to Protect the Autonomy of Japan's National Universities Name: affiliation and/or title: Address: Post code: Tel/Fax no: e-mail: I support the People's Network and consent for my name to appear on the website or on printed materials. (Please fill in the above form and send it to the executive secretary via Email, fax or conventional mail.) People's Network to Protect the Autonomy of Japan's National Universities chairperson : YAMAZUMI Masami, former president of the Tokyo Metropolitan University executive secretary : TOYOSHIMA Kouichi, Prof. of Physics, Univ. of Saga Address: Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Saga 1 Honjo-machi, Saga, 840-8502 Japan Email: toyo@cc.saga-u.ac.jp phone/fax +81-952-28-8845 temporary website: http://pegasus.phys.saga-u.ac.jp/UniversityIssues/callforntwk.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (2) PROCLAMATION of the Board of directors of Japan Mathematical Society http://www.math.sci.hokudai.ac.jp/dokuhou/msj.html (A provisional unauthorized translation by Toru Tsujishita) Do the system of higher education and academic research in Japan improve by making national universities into corporations by the common law of Independent Administrative Corporation? Director of Japan Mathematical Society Yukio MATSUMOTO 1st, February, 2000 Recently the Japanese government plans to make the national universities into Dokuritsu Gyousei Houjin (Independent Administrative Corporation) and the rights and wrongs of the plan are widely discussed. Although it concerns itself mainly with the promotion of research activity of mathematics, the Japan Mathematical Society express its opinion on this problem, because it is deeply connected with the future of academic research in Japan and there are many members doing research and education on mathematics in national universities. 1.Making universities into corporation based on the Common Law of the Independent Administrative Corporation conflicts with the academic freedom. The government is now considering the plan to make national universities into corporation based on the Common Law of Independent Administrative Corporation, but the impetus came not from the motivation to overcome the various difficulties concerning education and research but from the point of view of the administrative and financial reform. It is said that Independent Administrative Corporation university has some merits. Firstly they have more freedom in organization, administration, and finance etc. and secondly the financial support is promised by the government in the form of subsidy for management. However, both the autonomy and financial support are guaranteed to the universities only as corporations to which the government farm out projects. In fact a university must make detailed plans to carry out the five years project assigned by the government and, after that period, the government evaluate its activity and determine the next five years project to be farmed out to it, and, in case the evaluation is, the government even abolish it. This is not in harmony with the mission of universities, namely autonomous activity of research and education, and conflicts with the academic freedom guaranteed by the constitution. The merits of the plan mentioned above do not deserve consideration in view of the high cost of destruction of the the academic freedom, which has so much fundamental importance. 2. Pursuit of administrative efficiency by five years projects is not suitable for research activity in universities, especially in fundamental research. The management of Independent Administrative Corporations is based on the plan they make according to the three to five years projects farmed out by the government. But many researches in universities are not confined to the time span of five years and that there have been no epoch-making original contributions which are obtained by research following definite projects. Especially in the domain of fundamental researches such as mathematics, it is often the case that even for the specialists it takes many years for the epoch-making results to be realized and usually it is nearly impossible to have some outlook which kind of profits the result will bring to the society. Furthermore, it is obvious that the pursuit of efficiency, which is one of the main points of five years projects, is not consistent with research and education. It is said sometimes that the efficiency is not economic one but the one in view of its own aim. However, in such short periods as five years it is difficult to judge which is good. Moreover, even this interpretation of efficiency remains at present only a wishful thinking. The pessimism about the nature of efficiency imposed to the university is rather natural since the Independent Administrative Corporation is designed for the reform of administration and finance of the government. It is not right to move the activity of education and research, which are not measured by the concept of efficiency, whatever it might be, to the environment under the Independent Administrative Corporation, whose mission is exactly the efficiency. Needless to say, there would produced not genuinely deep results by the research dominated by the projects which change every five years. 3. The Independent Administrative Corporation system which deprives of the freedom of research puts barrier to original researches. Recently it is stressed that it is the originality that is most needed both for the industrial community and for the academic community. But the freedom of research is absolutely necessary for original ideas to come to existence. This is the reason why the academic freedom is so badly needed. By the way, it is sometimes claimed that Japanese researchers have little originality, which is only an ungrounded prejudice. In fact, in many domains of research, Japanese contribution is at the top level from the worldwide standard and the original ideas by Japanese scholars play important roles for the academic development. 4. The mathematics researches, as a typical domain of fundamental science, give evidence to the above assertion. Mathematics is the fundamental language for the science and technology. She has been assimilating rich ideas from other disciplines including human and social sciences and has developed as the universal language of science doing modeling and abstraction. On the other hand, many domain of mathematics has developed autonomously and brought mathematics fertilization, whose significance is not confined to mathematics as is proved by many historical examples. To describe the theory of general relativity, Einstein used the language of Riemannian geometry, but Riemann did not intend to prepare language for physics but only arrived at it by thinking deeply about the space and the distance. The history shows that every deep mathematical research has prominent applications to other disciplines such as physics. Usually, however, many years elapses before such applications are found. In the above example, it is half century after Riemann laid down his theory that Einstein applied it to his theory. We are proud of prominent contributions of Japanese mathematicians. There are many mathematical theory born in Japan and known all over the world, , such as the class field theory by Teiji Takagi, the theory of functions of several complex variables by Kiyoshi Oka, algebraic analysis by Mikio Sato, Mori theory in algebraic geometry, theory of stochastic differential equations by Kiyoshi Ito, etc.. The freedom of research and education in national universities in Japan has definitely positive effect on these. 5. We will reform the universities and education by ourselves with enthusiasm. It is true that there are various problems in the system of researches and education in universities and we need radical reform including the reform of organization and institution. However we do not think that the current plan of making national universities in to Independent Administrative Corporation will solve these problems and realize the reform of universities which brings about the development of the academic culture of Japan. Mathematics is getting more and more important not only for its own sake but also as the language and instruments by the scientific and technological development and accordingly the mathematical education in the universities will have more importance proportionally. The mathematical education in elementary and middle education has the object, not only the computing ability of pupils, but also cultivate their thinking ability to have insight on the essence of the world. It is the most appropriate subject to grow the high intellect of pupils, who will not be flawed by numerical data without solid ground. At the same time, many problems in the current education in Japan has salient features in mathematics education and urgent action is needed to remedy them. We, who are engaged in education of mathematics, are made up our minds to recognize the importance and responsibility of our mission originating the importance of mathematics and the JMS are doing various activities in each universities We are aware of the insufficiency of the outcome of the above efforts and are open to criticism. The reform, however, must at least be in harmony with the efforts of the university staffs actively engaged in teaching. 6. We demand the government, the ministry of education, to work out policy based on the crucial points of research and education with long term vision. The Japan Mathematical Society, consisting chiefly of researchers and educators of mathematics, has expressed, in many occasions, its opinions on other educational reforms, especially on the elementary and middle education. We have repeatedly warned that the educational reforms has lowered the levels of academic attainment and has the danger to deprive the young people of the ability to think, since the real motivation behind the reforms were alien to education and the education system has been greatly distorted for the real motivation to be glossed over. We are afraid that the plan of the government making national universities into corporation based on Independent Administrative Corporation law have the same hidden motivation similar to the above one. We demand the Ministry of Education will work out the policy of university reform, not yielding to the pressure of those alien to education and academic world, but pondering deeply on the ideal of education and research and taking consideration the social roles the university should play in the 21th century. ----------------------------------------------------------------------