SeminarMonday 14 September 2015
6:00pm – 7:00pm
The Internationalisation of Higher Education in Japan and the UK
Drinks reception: 7:00pm – 8:00pm
13/14 Cornwall Terrace, Outer Circle (entrance facing Regent's Park), London NW1 4QP
Organised by The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
Since the 1980s Japanese higher education institutions have undergone a number of reforms in response to government internationalisation initiatives. At the moment, the “Top Global University Project (TGUP)” policy challenges universities to transform themselves in comprehensive and fundamental ways over a 10-year period. The government’s rationale for internationalisation has shifted from capacity building in other countries to improvement of its own higher education system. The expectation of current initiatives is that comprehensive internationalisation will enable universities to produce a workforce which is more efficient and able to contribute to the economic development of Japan.
With rapidly ageing populations in the UK and Japan, the decline of economic power in the global market is a major concern of the government and industry. This lecture discussed institutional challenges and opportunities for further internationalisation in both countries, and looked into themes such as the marketisation of higher education and Amartya Sen’s notion of ‘multi-positional objectivity’ as a way to deeper international understanding.
About the contributors
Professor Miki Horie
Miki Horie is Associate Professor of International Education and a director of the Division of International Affairs at Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto. She is a researcher of international higher education and intercultural learning, and her current research focus is on transnational joint programs in East Asia and the students’ personal/intercultural development through such programs. Professor Horie received an M.A. in Education from Nagoya University in 1995, and a Ph.D. in Educational Policy and Administration from the University of Minnesota in 2003.
Professor Simon Marginson
Simon Marginson is Professor of International Higher Education of the Institute of Education, University College London. Professor Marginson is one of the world’s leading scholars in higher education studies and international and comparative education. He holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne, with his thesis on ‘Markets in Education’. From November of this year, he will become Director of the ESRC/HEFCE Centre for Global Higher Education.
Lesley Hayman (Chair)
Lesley Hayman is Deputy Vice Principal at Pearson College London, where she is responsible for creating their international strategy. She was a British Council career officer for twenty years and served in the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Japan and Kenya. Between 2004 and 2009 she was Deputy Director Japan and Education Attachée for the British Embassy where she led on the bilateral relationship between UK and Japanese higher education.