President 　HIRANO　Shin-ichi

Since the inception in July 1991 as a degree awarding organization, the National Institution for Academic Degrees has assumed key roles in Japanese higher education. Since 2000, therecognized NIAD-UE has been involved in operations concerning university evaluation and awarding of degrees. In 2004 NIAD-UE was transformed into an incorporated administrative agency.

Since then, the environment surrounding Japanese higher education has changed significantly. In 2004, Japan’s national universities were converted into independent corporate entities,and all universities, junior colleges, and colleges of technology became required to undergo accreditation by accreditation bodies certified by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

Amid such circumstances, NIAD-UE’s primary task has been to conduct evaluation and degree-awarding programs for the purposes of realizing a society in which improved education and research levels in universities and the results of diverse learning in higher education are appropriately evaluated. Through these programs, NIAD-UE hopes to contribute to the betterment of Japanese higher education.

In such changing circumstances, with regard to evaluation operations, NIAD-UE has been certified by the Minister as an evaluation and accreditation organization for universities, junior colleges, colleges of technology, and law schools which are one of the professional graduate schools in 2005. Since then, NIAD-UE has been directing the evaluation processes upon receipt of applications from universities and colleges, and making the results of evaluation open to public.

Furthermore, NIAD-UE is evaluating the circumstances of education and research in national university corporations and inter-university research institute corporations with respect to their attainment of mid-term goals for education and research. Such evaluations have been delegated to NIAD-UE by the National University Corporation Evaluation Committee of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). In fiscal 2008, NIADUEconducted evaluations ahead of the end of the first mid-term goal period, and reported the results to the National University Corporation Evaluation Committee while also making them available to the public. These steps were taken to contribute to comprehensive organizational and administrative reviews that corporations conduct voluntarily and to studies of subsequent mid-term goals and plans. This fiscal year, NIAD-UE will conduct a detailed analysis toward evaluations of the second mid-term goal period based on finalized evaluations of the first midtermgoal period as it also seeks to build a better evaluation system.

NIAD-UE has fully recognized that we, as a quality assurance organization, should play an important role in the quality assurance framework for higher education by pursuing tangible and transparent evaluations. NIAD-UE intends to conduct evaluations that will allow universities that have undergone NIAD-UE evaluations to further stimulate and raise their education and research activities. With the cooperation of university personnel and others, and with various opinions and viewpoints in mind, we will continue to develop our evaluations program so that it may further contribute to better higher education standards in Japan. We further anticipate that the program will help universities gain broad understanding and support from the public and then lead to the further understanding by the stakeholders.

At the same time, NIAD-UE’s degree-awarding program is also proceeding well. Since awarding our first degrees in March of 1992, we have awarded degrees to over 50,000 people based on strict examination. We award degrees through two schemes: 1) a scheme for bachelor’s degrees that are awarded to graduates of junior colleges or colleges of technology, or to students who have completed courses at professional training colleges that meet certain requirements laid down by MEXT; and 2) a scheme for bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees that are awarded to students who successfully completed NIAD-UE-approved programs at academies or colleges established by governmental ministries or agencies other than MEXT. We intend to continue appropriately and steadily awarding degrees andcontributing to the diversification of learning opportunities in Japanese higher education.

As globalization progresses, q ality assurance for higher education is becoming an important issue. Even in Japan, the establishment of university evaluations that have universal applicability is an urgent issue. Given these circumstances, international quality assurance activities that are coupled with Japanese higher education policy such as sharing of evaluations through collaboration with overseas university evaluation bodies and evaluation of international university partnership programs are required. As Japan’s central quality assurance body and representative in the field, NIAD-UE is furthering a government-led Japan-China-Korea inter-university exchange with quality assurance program, and proactively promoting cooperation with university evaluation bodies in several foreign countries. Thus, all of us at NIAD-UE are keenly aware that our mission and roles are gaining significance day by day.

Recently, we feel that the expectations and concerns directed toward higher education have risen more than ever, not only among those involved in the higher education, but also among the general public. On behalf of everyone at NIAD-UE, I declare our intention to continue administering our programs with even greater transparency, and to implement NIAD-UE’s evaluations and degree-awarding appropriately and smoothly. In this endeavor, I earnestly request your continued understanding and support.