Measures of Performance of Universities and Their Faculty in Japan

Issue title: Engineering Education

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Shirabe, Masashi

Affiliations: Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Oookayama 2-12-1, Meguro, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan. Tel./Fax: +81 3 5734 3270; E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: Recruiting competent faculty members and encouraging their good practices are unquestionably important for university management. Although faculty assessment is a basic tool for such managerial tasks, Japanese universities had long underestimated faculty assessment. In the 1990s, university standards changed in Japan so that internal evaluation and publication of its results became mandatory. Since then, a series of university reform activities have boosted universities' awareness of public accountability and caused universities to place much value on showing easy-to-understand results of their assessments. Accordingly, objective university assessment has been touted, and research assessment by bibliometric indicators has been a focus of constant attention. This paper describes the faculty assessment scheme typically used in Japanese universities and points out its problems. It then focuses on the use of bibliometric indicators in this assessment, discusses problems with their use, and concludes by suggesting ways in which bibliometric indicators could be used effectively.

Journal: Information Knowledge Systems Management, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 167-178, 2004