## System in order to realize quality assurance

With the aim of further improving the standard and international competitiveness of Japanese higher education institutions' education and research, efforts to ensure and improve the quality of higher education have been promoted. In specific terms, the establishment approval system and the quality assurance and accreditation system have been combined to build a system whereby any higher education institution can be encouraged to actively improve its quality while respecting its own initiative.

## (1) Establishment approval system

To assure the quality that can meet global demands and protect students' benefit, the approval by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology is required in order to establish university. Upon approval, the Council for University Establishment and School Corporation comprising experts shall conduct an inspection under the minimal standards for university establishment of the University Establishment Standards.

Since 2004, only prior notification to the Minister shall be required to change the organizational structure such as in the case where the types and areas of academic degrees awarded by the university are not changed upon the establishment of faculties.

【Change in numbers of approvals and notifications of establishment of universities, junior colleges and graduate schools】

Established in	FY2002	FY2003	FY2004	FY2005	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008	FY2009	FY2010
Approval	291	277	196	127	126	110	87	78	66
University establishments	17	15	17	14	10	10	10	11	5
Junior college establishments	3	0	2	1	2	2	1	4	0
Graduate school establishment	13	25	20	19	12	11	9	8	8
Notification	1	1	276	265	356	243	258	235	222
Total of approvals and notifications of establishment	292	278	472	392	482	353	345	313	288

• The above numbers are based on the numbers of organizations established.

• The numbers of university, junior college and graduate school establishments are included in the total of approvals.

## Checkpoints for inspection upon university establishment

## [ Purposes and objectives of establishment ]

• Whether the goal for university education is clear, and whether that goal is sufficiently planned with considering the prospect of recruiting students and the expectation shared by the neighbors

## [Curriculum]

• Whether the subjects required to accomplish the purposes and objectives of the establishment have been provided and the curriculum has been systematically organized.

• Whether teaching methods (lectures, seminars, experimentation etc.) are appropriate to accomplish the purposes and objectives of establishment.

## [Faculty]

• Whether the faculty required to accomplish the purposes and objectives of establishment have been sufficiently assigned.

• Whether full-time teachers have been assigned to subjects deemed priority areas from an educational perspective.

[Names (Names of universities etc, names of academic degrees, etc), facilities and equipment, self-evaluation, FD and other matters]

• Whether facilities and equipment, including school buildings, have met standards and verification that none of them are hampering education and research.

For universities to be established by school corporations, as well as the above points, financial plans etc. are also to be inspected.