著者

濱中(万見) 淳子

出版者

日本教育社会学会

雑誌

教育社会学研究 (ISSN:03873145)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.71, pp.47-65, 2002-10-31

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The expansion of graduate education has been one of the major policy priorities in the area of higher education in recent years. Meanwhile, enrollments in graduate courses, especially in MSS (master programs in social sciences) have been rising rapidly. This paper attempts to analyze the mechanism of the expansion of MSS programs. For this purpose, the following two questions are posed. (1) Has the actual expansion conformed to the governmental framework? (2) If not, how can the mechanism behind the expansion of MSS enrollments be explained? On the first question, the following findings are made. At the end of the 1980s, there was a significant shift in government policy, encouraging the expansion of MSS programs. At the time, the government had two preconceptions about MSS. One was that students with a high motivation for study would apply for admission, and another that the social demand for students who had completed MSS programs was increasing. The government assumed that a significant amount of talent would be developed through MSS courses if the enrolment capacity expanded. However, the actual expansion fell below these expectations. On the second question, a methodological strategy was used of analyzing the interaction between students (demand side) and each individual university (supply side) as suggested by Craig and Archer. From this analysis, coupled with the findings for the first question, the following expansion mechanism was obtained : Following the shift in government policy at the end of the 1980s, national and private universities that already had MSS courses began to expand their admission capacities around 1990. This brought an expansion in demand among students for admission to MSS courses. However, in contrast to the expectation of the government, the social demand for students who had completed MSS programs did not increase much, and many of the students who entered MSS courses actually did not have a high motivation to study. There was also an expansion in the latter part of 1990s, because many private universities that had not focused much on MSS courses until the middle of the 1980s built up admission capacity based on the expected demand among students. Thus, an autonomous expansion among private universities occurred. These findings imply and suggest the following : (1) The actual expansion in MSS enrolments did not conform to the policy aim because the government did not judge student motivations correctly and did not take into consideration what private universities might do. In order to ensure the policy aims of such an expansion, some devices would be required to restrict the type of new students. (2) It was found that it was the steps taken by individual universities that had the greatest effect on how actual expansions occurred. The conclusion is that when analyzing expansions of enrolment, it is imperative to include measures that take into account actions by individual universities that increase supply.