(Jan.14.1995)

One college put entrance examinations 8 times a year, and earned 600,000,000 yen more than previous year. Other one lost 700,000,000 yen by failure in scheduling entrance examinations. Examination fee is now one of the key in college finance.

Average government aid for private colleges is 140,000 yen for every student. In a certain medical college, the aid amounts to 5,250,000 yen per student. At such private colleges as Waseda, as they can't expect aid growth, they go into sideline business.

Because of hard entrance examination, students apt to think admission as the goal, and they stop studying. In addition, not all examinee who succeeded have strong desire to study. They consider colleges to be a kind of amusement parks.

There are also some problems in professor side. Some of them do not write any treatise as a researcher, just do absolutely same lecture every year. The trouble for students is that they are in charge of required subject. These low level lectures lead students away from study. Students do not have any chance to say "No!" to them.

Another matter is in Japanese social system. Seniors are busy as bee to hunt for their job, so they neglect their study. On the other hand, freshmen and sophomores are forced to study basic curriculum other than their speciality. 4-1-2=1. Yes, you are right. The remaining is only one year, one year to major in their speciality. Want to study more? You have to go to some graduate school.

This could be the reason why Japanese people ask college student "What college do you go to?" instead of "What is your speciality?"

College must be classified as high-end educational institution. However, it is said that all educational programs except college education are successful. There are two ways to let colleges more attractive. The first way is to enrich their facilities. This is the easiest way. What they need is only money. The other one, I recommend this way, is to enrich their carriculum. In other words, if they fail in these reform, they will be ruined.