College officials get managing skills help

With the financial environment surrounding universities growing increasingly tight due to the declining birthrate, a nonprofit organization is helping university officials improve their managerial skills and get more hands-on in operating their schools.

The Support Center for University Officials aims to nurture university officials with a more professional mind-set and greater expertise, the group said.

At Ferris University's Ryokuen campus in Izumi Ward, Yokohama, 72 people, including about 50 university officials, attended an in-school training session on July 24.

"Rather than leaving the school management in the hands of faculty members, I want you university officials to gain the expertise to make proposals for the reform of the school," said Makoto Obinata, the center's chief director and a former managing director of Shibaura Institute of Technology.

With the arrival of an era when universities are scrambling for a shrinking number of high school graduates, private universities in particular are facing the need to tout their selling points to survive this difficult time.

Under such circumstances, university officials, who traditionally have simply followed decisions made at faculty meetings, will be expected to proactively make proposals, such as the reorganization of departments and new methods of conducting admission exams.

In response to such moves, former officials of Hosei, Waseda, Meiji and other universities founded the center in March and started training university officials. Many were involved in the launch of new departments and other reforms at their schools.

In the Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo-based center's training program on group discussions, for instance, participants are asked to exchange opinions about a university reform plan proposed by one of the attendants. They are asked to point out where the problems lie and discuss how to improve the original plan.

The program aims to help people view things from a different perspective from their own through other people's proposals, according to the group.

From September, the group also plans to organize a training camp in which officials from different universities are expected to take part.
Another important mission of the center is to help universities hire employees.
According to Jitsukazu Wada, director general of the center and a former board member of Hosei University, many applicants seem to be under the misapprehension that they will be able to secure a stable life as a university employee, and that it will be easy for them to take long vacations.
To prevent people from applying for a position at universities for such irresponsible reasons, the center gave detailed explanations on university workers' daily duties at a seminar it organized shortly after the group's launch in March.

Furthermore, the center reportedly has been asked by a private university to evaluate a part-time worker who is under consideration as a candidate for a full-time position.

"By now, university officials have been expected to simply support faculty members," Obinata, 75, said. "But if they acquire planning ability, they'll be able to provide a better service to students."

He also said his group hopes to help improve the expertise of officials at smaller universities, which often find it difficult to establish their own systems to improve their officials' skills.
(Aug. 1, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070801TDY04002.htm