Vocation tests priority at university

LEC Tokyo Legal Mind University, which was issued an improvement advisory by the Education, Science and Technology Ministry on Thursday, has been more focused on preparing students for vocational exams than offering a well-rounded university education.

The university, based in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, was criticized by the ministry for its "inadequate" management of faculty and courses.

"I haven't been called in by the university once since I became a professor," said a licensed small and medium enterprise management consultant who holds the title of professor at LEC university.

The consultant was recruited when the university was founded in 2004, but he has never taught at the school, supposedly because of a lack of students wanting to take his course.

Another man who used to be an assistant professor at the university quit in 2005 because he felt the university did not offer adequate support for academic research. He was, for example, not given a research room.

"The title 'professor' can make you look more important. I'd guess that some of the professors are in there purely for the prestige of the title," the man said.

According to the education ministry, about 100 professors do not actually engage in any teaching at the university.

The university's "campuses," comprising 14 different buildings, are scattered across the country, with the facilities shared with a preparatory school operated by the same company that runs the university.

The preparatory school is aimed at those studying for various vocational qualifications, but the education ministry discovered that in some cases, the university students were taking the same courses as preparatory school students and using the same textbooks.

In these cases, university and preparatory school students were typically asked to sit in on the same classes, but with the class given a different name. For example, the university's "Basics of law" course is called "Preparation for the third-class certificate in business practices" at the preparatory school.

When sitting the same classes, university students would be asked to sit in designated seats in the front row of the classroom.

A junior at the university who belongs to a campus in the Kanto region said: "For many courses, even some of the compulsory ones, the class starts at 7 p.m. It seem like this is done to allow students with jobs to attend classes.

"We feel that a lot of the time the university gives a higher priority to the preparatory school students the way the curriculum is arranged. But that's just the way it is, and we can't do anything about it."

There was a mixed response from students to the education ministry's improvement advisory.
Another junior, who said he hopes to become a business management consultant, said: "It's to our advantage to be able to attend the same class with students who are serious about what they study. I wouldn't have studied so much had I gone to some other university. I don't think the university is bad at all."

But another student, also a junior, said, "Professors here only teach the stuff necessary to pass vocational exams, and don't give us the academic foundation for reaching the correct conclusions ourselves, which is what I'm more interested in."

He said that after he graduates he plans to join a company that does not require any vocational certificates. "For those who aren't interested in studying for certificates, this isn't a comfortable place to be," he said.
(Jan. 27, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070127TDY02006.htm