Training Researchers in the Asia-Pacific: A Regional Response to Global Leadership in Research
The growth of the audit culture in the world academic research system as typified by the United Kingdom Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) has led to an extreme preoccupation with research league tables, and their associated branding, marketing, and managerial strategies. The most examined of all research league tables is the UK RAE, which has been held every 5–6 years since 1985.
The ‘big bang’ in Japanese higher education
This book is one product from an extensive and comprehensively knitted series of group research projects that in recent times have focused on reform in the field of Japanese higher education. It gives readers an incisive and up-to-date discussion on this timely topic, directly connecting with the transformation of Japan’s society and economy. However, the authors themselves admit that they are describing a situation still very much in flux. The contributors are a mix of young Japanese and foreign researchers and experienced scholars who are based mostly in major academic institutions in Japan, the UK and the US. In the sum-total of their individual articles, we can find ideas and observations covering a wide range of academic analyses – economic, politics, society and contemporary developments related to the subject. Indeed, the strength of the book lies in its diversified prism of multi-disciplinary perspectives, providing an eclectic analysis of Japan’s higher education reform. The variety of the contributions to this book makes it difficult to find a fixed definition of reform. Nevertheless, most authors seem to share the idea that university reforms in Japan were – and still are, because the reform process is not yet finished – ideologically based. This means the process has to be understood in the neoliberal drive that has engulfed Japan since the 1980s. Japanese national universities are now independent agencies, having the power to recruit and lay-off staff, set their own budgets, review their academic curricula and even decide the pay scales of their staff. This status change induces a shift towards a more resultand performance-oriented university teaching and research environment. Correspondingly, Japanese authorities are now cultivating competition among the universities and this may lead in time to the development of new hierarchies. This book highlights how there is a greater emphasis on transparency and accountability. Much more precise and broad-based information must be submitted to the authorities, and to the public at large. Relationships between students and universities are shifting towards a more client–provider type of relationship. Competition is strongly emphasized, with the careers of young researchers – and sometimes of their professors also – linked to concrete achievement in their research. Access to funding is becoming more difficult even in institutions such as Tokyo University, where until recently the research budget used to be casually rolled-over. In view of the aging population, Japanese universities must find other sources of income. Several articles conclude that many universities are in trouble financially and that we are at the beginning of a shake-out that could transform significantly the university environment in years to come. But, at the same time, a number of authors provide analyses demonstrating that a significant number of institutions are showing strong entrepreneurial spirit. These institutions develop innovative programmes, enlarge their ‘client’ base in creating courses for adults, and make increasingly efficient use of information technology to more limely and better respond to emerging educational
Evaluating Journal Publications of Marketing Professors: A Second Look
Marketing chairs at AACSB-accredited schools state that publication achievements are crucial in faculty rank decisions. Substantial chair subjectivity appears in the process of evaluating journal articles and in perceptions of journals' manuscripts acceptance rates. Subjective ratings of marketing journals heavily influence evaluations of authors' achievements.