Japan
Free uni education for poor families In Japan, one of the few countries with higher fees and less government investment in higher education than Australia, the Government has announced a US$7.2billion package which will enable students from certain lowincome households to be eligible for free education at national universities and reduced tuition costs at private universities, two-year colleges and vocational schools from 2020. As reported in the last edition of Advocate (vol. 24, no. 1), the tide is turning on the cornerstone of neo-liberal higher education policies: tuition fees. Across the ditch in New Zealand, the new Labour Government has introduced free tertiary education for first time tertiary students from 1 January 2018. In The Philippines, tertiary education is also fee free from the start of 2018. The Japanese grants, or scholarships as they are called, are intended to reduce the problem of low-income students defaulting on loan repayments. Loans are currently the main way for cash-strapped
families to finance college education. Currently 350,000 students, or 10 times the number compared to 2004, have fallen behind on their loan repayments, of which half are more than three months behind. The Japanese Government unveiled the new package providing scholarships from 2020 for students from families who cannot afford to pay their residential taxes soon after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s election victory in August. During the election campaign he promised a new economic package to subsidise education costs from pre-school to university, improve elderly care and raise productivity by 10% by fiscal 2020 compared to 2016. According to the OECD education costs in Japan average 30% of household expenditure compared to 16% worldwide. The Government’s scholarship plan is “linked to increasing Japan’s economic production, now stalled by student debt and the rising number of youth who are shelving starting families, contributing to a serious demographic decline”, says Yuki Honda, a professor at the Graduate School of Education, University of Tokyo, and a supporter of the student-led Aequitas campaign against low wages, which began in September 2015. But Honda believes the scholarship plan will not achieve its intended purpose of equal opportunity as the program is selective, aimed at particular universities only and restricted to students who have goals to get good jobs and start new ventures, among stipulated conditions now being debated. It sets conditions that cannot be necessarily be met by the target group of disadvantaged students. Because of the cost, young people from lower-income
families are less likely to receive higher education and will make less money than employed graduates over the course of their lifetimes. But others are hailing the package as a landmark. Kan Suzuki, a former vice minister in the ministry of education and now a professor in the public policy department, Keio University, said, “The new scholarship will encourage more students to study in regional universities and will stimulate funds flowing to the local economy and lead to quality human resources entering local industries,” he says. The education ministry’s stated objective is to free the students of debt and support them to start new ventures or use their university education to get jobs in a rapidly changing employment environment. The ministry’s website describes the program as being important for achieving innovation in higher education and boosting the country’s international competitiveness, as well as supporting fair opportunities and higher research quality. In 2004, all national universities were reformed as legal corporations with discretionary rights over their affairs such as budgets. But the Government started to decrease subsidies to national universities by 1% each year at the same time and has started increasing grants or contracts to universities that can attain government goals which is leading to financial difficulties for many universities. Jeannie Rea, National President Source: Suvendrini Kakuchi, University World News, Issue No:489 (Jan 2018). www.universityworldnews.com
Image: School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo. Source: www.sih.m.u-tokyo.ac.jp
NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 25 no. 1 • March 2018 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 43