Japanese Universities Go Global, but Slowly
日本高校国际化慢半拍

AKITA, JAPAN — Takuya Niiyama, a sophomore at Akita International University, dreams of becoming an international tourism operator promoting the northern Japanese prefecture of Akita, leveraging his hard-earned language skills and a network of international students he befriended on campus.

新山拓也(Takuya Niiyama)是日本国际教养大学(Akita International University)的大二学生，他的理想就是要成为一名国际旅行策划师。他要利用他在大学里辛苦习得的语言能力和建立起的国际人脉来推动日本北部秋田地区的旅游业发展。

Mr. Niiyama, who is from Akita, hopes that the university’s mandated one-year overseas exchange program will help him achieve his goal.

新山来自秋田县。他希望国际教养大学为期一年的海外交换项目能够帮助他达成目标。

“I need to acquire solid English skills,” he said. “And I knew that an ordinary Japanese university would not prep me for that.”

“我需要获得扎实的英语能力。”他说：“而且我知道一般的日本高校不能很好地培养这项能力。”

As Japanese schools intensify efforts to globalize their campuses, Akita International University seems well on its way toward internationalization, with foreign exchange students arriving from more than 50 institutions from around the world.

随着日本高校纷纷加大投入实现国际化，拥有着来自全球50多个高校的外国交换生的国际教养大学看来在通向国际化的道路上一马当先。

Mineo Nakajima, AIU’s president, visited U.S. schools like the University of California, San Diego and The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, while planning his new institution.

在国际教养大学的草创时期，它的校长中岛岭雄(Mineo Nakajima)考察了美国的多所高校，比如加州大学圣迭哥分校(University of California, San Diego) 和位于弗吉尼亚州威廉斯堡的威廉玛丽学院(The College of William & Mary)。

A.I.U., founded in 2004, joins a handful of others in experimenting with these kinds of endeavors. The problem is that they are a glaring exception rather than a trend in Japan.

在2004年成立的国际教养大学和其他几所高校一起，努力进行着这类教学试验。但问题是它们在日本并非主流，而只是几个扎眼的异类。

Some new schools outside the major cities are beating their bigger, older, slow-moving peers to the punch, with more international students and graduates who are likely to be multicultural and multilingual. They are also drawing the attention of corporate recruiters.

一些远离大城市的新学校凭借着更多的国际学生以及更具有多文化、多语言背景的毕业生，已经领先于那些比它们更大、更古老、反应也更迟钝的学校。而且他们已经引起了企业招聘部门的注意。

“Japan is still an intellectually closed shop,” said Mr. Nakajima of AIU, who was the former president of the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

“日本在学术上还在闭门造车。”国际教养大学的校长中岛岭雄说。他曾担任过东京外国语大学(Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)的校长。

At The University of Tokyo, Japan’s top university, also known as Todai, only 53 undergraduates took part in its exchange program in 2011, or 0.4 percent of the student body of 14,100.

东京大学(The University of Tokyo)是日本最好的高校，14100名本科生中只有53名参加了2011年的国际交换项目，占总人数的0.4%。

Keio University, another leading name in Tokyo with an undergraduate enrollment of 29,000, sent only 133 students overseas in 2010, or 0.45 percent of the total student body.

东京的另一所知名高校庆应义塾大学(Keio University)，在2010年输出133名本科生到国外，占总人数29000人的0.45%。

Only eight universities across Japan, mostly private, sent more than 100 students abroad to obtain 16 credits or more in 2009, according to a university handbook published by The Asahi Shimbun. (Japan has more than 700 colleges and universities.)

根据朝日新闻社(The Asahi Shimbun)出版的高校手册，2009年，全日本只有八所高校输出超过100名学生到国外去选修超过16个学分，其中多数是私立学校。（而日本拥有超过700所高校。）

Reasons cited include low enthusiasm among students for study abroad, as well as a lack of drive and commitment on the part of universities to internationalize their programs.

这个现象背后的缘由跟学生去海外留学的积极性低有关，也与学校方面缺乏动力和毅力去实现本校学位项目的国际化不无关系。

Masako Egawa, a University of Tokyo spokeswoman, acknowledged that it had lagged behind both its international counterparts and its domestic peers.

东京大学的发言人江川雅子(Masako Egawa)承认，东京大学已经落后于国际和国内的众多高校。

“It is true, we have not had as extensive a system for international exchange as private universities do,” she said in an interview.

“确实，我们没有建立起像很多私立高校那样完善的国际交换体系。”她在一次采访中说道。

“We have been doing well at the graduate divisions, however, with 18 percent of the students coming from overseas.”

“不过我们的研究生院在这方面做得还不错的，我们有18%的研究生来自海外。”

Still, most large universities, including Todai, see the urgency of increasing overseas exchanges. This is particularly true as Japanese corporations need more graduates capable of helping them globalize, and as the universities themselves look to draw more students as the Japanese population ages.

不管怎样，包括东大在内的多数综合大学都已经意识到了增加海外交换项目的紧迫性。特别是在日本企业越来越需要能帮助他们实现全球化的毕业生的时候，同时大学也需要在本国人口老龄化的情况下吸引更多学生。

“We would like to see Japanese universities become more open internationally,” said Toshimitsu Iwanami, senior executive vice president of NEC Corp., a major information technology services provider. “And when that occurs, there may be a greater number of Japanese youth with globally ready talent.”

“我们希望看到日本高校越来越国际化，而且随着日本高校更加国际化，会有越来越多能适应全球化环境的日本年轻人。”日本电气股份有限公司(NEC Corp.)的高级执行副总裁岩波俊光(Toshimitsu Iwanami)这样说。日本电气股份公司是一家大型信息技术服务提供商。

Mr. Iwanami heads a committee on education at Keidanren, Japan’s leading federation of large corporations, which has voiced concerns about a lack of international higher education.

岩波俊光是日本经济团体联合会——一个重要的日本企业联盟——当中负责教育的委员会的领导人。这个委员会曾经呼吁外界更加关注日本高等教育不够国际化这个问题。

He added that Japanese employers were hoping that universities would introduce more bilingual, foreign graduates to the labor market.

他还补充说日本的雇主们都希望大学能够向劳动市场提供更多会两种语言的国际学生。

The vast majority of Japan’s leading universities are in big cities like Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. They admit thousands of students annually and have a century of history behind them, perpetuating the notion that institutions must be large, entrenched and urban to thrive.

多数日本的一流高校都在像东京、京都和大阪这样的大城市里。它们每年录取几千名学生，有着悠久的历史。这样的学校延续着高校要发展，就必须做到规模大，历史久，并且扎根城市的传统。

But Akita International University, which has struck a chord with both students and corporate recruiters, has surprised the establishment. Located in a part of Akita city surrounded by woods, it was created in 2004 financed largely by Akita Prefecture with a mission to produce internationally minded thinkers.

但是深得学生和企业雇主认可的国际教养大学却打破了这个传统。它成立于2004年，位于秋田市郊外的丛林里，是一所主要通过在秋田县募资建立，用于培养具有国际视野人才的学校。

Half of the faculty are non-Japanese and all classes are taught in English. Today, the university ranks among the nation’s top schools, like Osaka University and the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, in competitiveness of admissions. Last year, A.I.U. accepted only one out of 21 applicants in the segment of admissions that requires a competitive examination.

学校里半数的教职工都不是日本人，并且所有课程都为英语授课。现在，国际教养大学已经跻身日本顶尖大学的行列，在招生上和大阪大学、东京外国语大学等高校一样有竞争力。去年，国际教养大学的录取比例为21比1，申请者需要通过严格的选拔考试。

A relatively small university with total enrollment of 834, A.I.U. has become a magnet for corporate recruiters.

作为一个仅有834名学生的小规模高校，国际教养大学已经成为企业雇主们的心头好。

“Leading Japanese firms as well as foreign firms such as Morgan Stanley have been conducting recruitment by actually paying a visit to Akita,” said Hiroshi Kobayashi, editor of a university administration magazine. “That is very rare for a school that is located in a remote area.” He said regional universities normally had to woo corporate visitors by paying for their travel.

“日本最大的企业，还有像摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)这样的外国公司都派人亲自到国际教养大学来主持招聘。”小林弘(Hiroshi Kobayashi)说。他是一本高校行政管理杂志的主编。“这对于位于远郊地区的大学而言，是非常罕见的。”他还补充说，一些地区性的大学一般都要靠报销旅费的手段来求着企业招聘人员到他们那里去。

At A.I.U., 114 international students study there as part of the exchanges that it has with 130 overseas universities.

在国际教养大学，有114名国际学生通过这所大学和全球130所高校的交换项目来到这里学习。

Mr. Nakajima, the university president, said designing a system that was fully compatible with overseas schools was key. There are bigger problems, like a paucity of English-language courses, and smaller ones, like a course numbering system that is incompatible with what is used internationally.

该校校长中岛岭雄说这其中的关键在于设计一个和海外大学能完全对接的系统。这其中也有种种困难，大的比如英语课程的缺乏，小的比如课程编号系统和国际通用的体系不符。

Another institution with a successful international program is Ritsumeikan Asia-Pacific University, which was founded in 2000 in Ooita Prefecture on the southern island of Kyushu.

另一所成功建立国际项目的高校是立命馆亚洲太平洋大学(Ritsumeikan Aisa-Pacific University)，它成立于2000年，位于日本南部九州岛的大分县。

Its founding president, Kazuichi Sakamoto, said he felt the urge to create a new international university.

这所大学成立时的校长坂本和一(Kazuichi Sakamoto)说，他当时感到了建立一所全新的国际化大学的紧迫性。

“We felt the approach of doing something a little here and there to fix the system won’t do,” he said.

“我们认为对原有体系这里修一修，那里补一补并不是办法。”他说。

So, he and colleagues from Ritsumeikan University, in Kyoto, founded a new school in Ooita, with the help of a governor who wished to use the project to help revitalize the region.

于是他和在京都的立命馆大学(Ritsumeikan University)的同事们一起，依靠当地官员的帮助，在大分县成立了一所新的学校。这些官员希望这所大学能推动本地区的复苏。

“The buzz word we worked on was internationalization ‘from within’ to create a campus here that would be made up of students from around the world,” Mr. Sakamoto said.

“我们工作的关键在于‘从内部’进行国际化建设来打造一个由不同国家的学生组成的学校。”坂本和一说。

Today, Ritsumeikan Asia-Pacific University has the highest number, as well as the highest ratio, of foreign students working toward a degree in Japan: 2,692 from 81 countries who represent 43 percent of the total body. It achieved a 95 percent job placement rate in 2011 and, like Akita International University, is frequently visited by recruiters from leading companies.

今天，立命馆亚洲太平洋大学已经拥有全日本数量最多，同时也是比例最高的攻读学位的国际学生。这批学生的总计为2692人，来自81个国家，占学校学生总数的43%。2011年，这所大学95%的外国毕业生找到了工作。而且像国际教养大学一样，这所大学也吸引了众多大公司的招聘人员。

A survey published by The Nikkei Shimbun this month asked human resources heads at major Japanese companies which universities they were “paying most attention” to, in terms of nurturing talent. The first three spots went to Akita, the University of Tokyo and Ritsumeikan Asia-Pacific.

《日本经济新闻》(The Nikkei Shimbun)这个月发布了一个调查，调查中问到日本各大企业的人力资源主管哪些大学在能力培养方面是他们目前最关注的。排名前三的答案分别是国际教养大学、东京大学和立命馆亚洲太平洋大学。

Akita and Ritsumeikan Asia-Pacific employed two different tacks for internationalization. But their success came from one common link: They started universities from scratch.

国际教养大学和立命馆亚洲太平洋大学通过两种不同的途径实现国际化。但是它们的成功来自一个共同的策略：它们都是另起炉灶的。

Japanese universities, experts say, are run in a collegial manner. Top-down overhauls are invariably hobbled by faculty who prefer the status quo.

专家分析说，日本高校采取的是集体管理制度。自上而下的改革必定要遭遇那些安于现状的教职人员的阻碍。

“Changing an existing university is very difficult. Thus you might as well start a new one,” Mr. Nakajima said. “When I was president at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, I tried to redesign the English-language program to make it more communication oriented.”

“改变现有大学是很困难的。所以你还不如建立一个全新的大学。”中岛岭雄说。“当我担任东京外国语大学的校长时，我尝试过重新设计英语课程，将重点主要放在沟通上。”

The plan was foiled when he was met with resistance from the English faculty.

这个计划最终搁浅，因为它遭遇了来自英语系教职人员的抵制。

The answer may not be in tinkering with international programs, but a deeper change in the mind-sets of the faculty and the administrators, said Kirk R. Patterson, former dean at theJapan campus of Temple University, in Philadelphia.

费城天普大学(Temple University)日本分校区的前任校长科克·R·帕特森(Kirk R. Patterson)认为，日本现有问题的答案不应该在于补充国际项目，而在于从根本上扭转教职工和大学管理者的观念。

“There is a general lack of meaningful contribution by Japanese scholars to the international dialogue in their disciplines,” he said, citing low levels of participation in conferences and publication in academic journals, particularly in the social sciences. “If professors can’t be participants in the international dialogue, how can universities themselves become internationalized? Just talking about a flow of a few dozen students back and forth will not make universities international. The flow will come if the institutions themselves become more international.”

“整体而言，日本学者并未为他们学科的国际交流做出过有价值的贡献。”他说，并以日本学者在国际会议的低参与度和在国际学术刊物的低发表率作为论据，这种问题在社会科学研究中表现尤为明显。“如果教授都不参与到国际对话当中，大学又怎么能实现国际化呢？仅仅让一批本国学生出国，再引进一批外国学生并不能让学校国际化。如果学校本身变得更加国际化，这样的生源交换就是水到渠成的事情。”

来源：好英语网