There was a bunch in the news today about education. Here is an article about Japanese universities.

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=feature&id=202

Universities use innovative methods to attract students
Tetsuro Kaneda
TOKYO EJapanese universities are employing a variety of innovative methods to attract students amid the nation's plunging birthrate.
Some universities are linking up with prep schools in an effort to boost students' academic skills and others are trying to work within their regional communities with the help of nonprofit organizations (NPOs).
The Saitama Institute of Technology situated in the town of Okabe, Saitama Prefecture near Tokyo is one such university.
The institute offers lessons on electronics, information, machinery and chemistry in a system in which students are tracked based on ability.
"Special lessons are given to students with potential, while students lacking basic skills are thoroughly looked after," said President Mamoru Akiyama.
To improve student skills, the 2,500-student university has signed a broad tie-up agreement with an elite Tokyo prep school.
Students are required to study and are tested on physics, chemistry, mathematics, English and composition offered by the prep school via satellite communication.
"Academic skills improved in 70% of the lower-ranked students. With such improvement, students can be fully prepared for the fields they major in and become enthusiastic as well," said Prof Shunichi Uchiyama.
To further promote this policy, the university will require all first-year students this year to attend seminars in which professors correct their work in front of them. Teachers from the prep school will also be invited as lecturers.
"The age will soon come when all university applicants are allowed to enroll with the decrease in the number of children. At that time there will be wide gaps in student abilities. What is important is how the university can cope with this," said Uchiyama.
Edogawa University in the city of Nagareyama, Chiba Prefecture, has linked up with a local NPO to attract more students.
The university, with an enrollment of about 2,000 students, offers special courses on business and computers to NPO employees and working local citizens, while the NPO accepts students as volunteers and interns.
Last spring, the university and the NPO together with a cooperative association, local businesses and the municipal government, established a community business support center to give students a chance to start businesses and expand their future employment horizons.
Tie-ups between universities and NPOs are also spreading to Hokkaido in the north and Kyoto Prefecture in the west.
"The relationship between universities and their local communities is very important," said Hideo Yamagishi, president of the NPO Support Center Japan in Tokyo, which assists about 6,000 NPOs across the country. "Universities can provide education for working members of the community and lifelong education by contributing to the communities." (Kyodo News)
April 5, 2002

Japan Today Discussion

Universities use innovative methods to attract students
Anduril (Apr 6 2002 - 03:12)
Here in America the prospect of lots of beer drinking, drug use and ample and free sex is enough to coax 1 in 8 of our dumb asses into going to college. Most Americans don't go to college for the academia. You have my word on that.
Anduril,
Flame of the West

Innovative Ways ...
yataijoe (Apr 6 2002 - 09:52)
Yeah ... and 2 out of 3 dumbasses fail to graduate in 4-years because of the US's rigorous requirements.

In the US, the university doesn't yield to the students like it does here.

Thus, generally speaking, the surviving dumbasses in the US actually do get something out of their four-year investment, and I'm proud of that fact.

You want innovative ways to attract more students here?

1. Boost your student job placements rates. Have an aggressive person liasoning between the private/public work sector to monitor trends in hiring. Keep attention to the job market sharp.

2. Offer courses that can help Ss become competitive in the global business environment.

3. Hire your instructors on meritocracy and carefully scrutinize their application materials -- University hiring committees tend to weigh more heavily the number of publications the candidate has published as opposed to the quality of the papers themselves. In addition, the policy of hiring through connections is the cancer to the quality of the schools.

4. Have sound ideals, values, and missions; and think long-term. Too many universities still have vague ideals that amount to nothing in substance. eg: "We seek to develop harmonious individuals to create a better society ..." ??? Please try to quantify that.

5. If you don't have what it takes, quickly exit the business. Same goes with the banks here.

Tokyo University has just started something called PEAK at the Komaba campus. It is four years undergraduate college in English. I think the calendar is from October to July, in contrast to the usual Japanese academic calendar which is from April to January. The first class will start in October 2012.
http://peak.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/