自1984年設置臨時教育審議會以來，日本的高等教育受到改革浪潮的洗禮，以課 程的改革以及導入大學的自我檢查與評鑑為主，進行各種的改革。在這篇論文中，整理了這 種改革的背景，同時嘗試釐清在改革之際應特別考慮的重點。進行高等教育改革不只是日本 ，在北美及西歐等先進國家也是教育改革的重要課題。而這也由於先進諸國的高等教育在70 年代後半以後，即自大眾階段逐漸移至後大眾階段之故。在「後大眾化」階段，產生了以下 的情形：（1）在急速的擴增後，處於平板不昇的狀態，因此被迫對於以前認定是永續擴增 為前提的大學觀進行檢討。（2）高等教育的規模與結構應如何規劃？門戶應開放給哪些人 ？及應以何種條件開放？重新被討論了。（3）政府對高等教育的援助，已經不能給予過多 的期待。（4）一般已認為各大學應對各自的經營負起責任，且各大學應以最適當的方法， 依靠自助努力，以發揮解決具體課題的能力。現在的高等教育改革，在這些條件下，並以日 本高等教育的歷史發展及文化特性為基礎，被要求建構一國際通用的日本型高等教育制度， 而其要點有以下幾項：（1）一方面對期望升學盡量廣開門戶，同時另一方面為確保獲得國 際認同的質的水準，對同世代應有多少比率的大學生才恰當，應有明確探討的必要。（2） 站在歷史發展的基礎上，應明確訂出在日本教育制度中，高等教育的應有定位及功能。而那 時重要的是，在日本的高等教育中，學生期待學得基礎的「一般教育」及「專門教育」。 （3 ）由於學生期望教導容易瞭解的內容，有編製可給予學生滿足的課程，但大多數的日本 大學教員卻都比較重視研究，不重視教學。因此對於改善學部教育容易實施的是，要求大學 教員將各自的專門領域的基礎部分，以自已最容易理解的方式，儘可能正確地教導給學生。 所以現在所謂的「專門教育」，可能會逐漸被統整到一般教育

　　　　　Since the establishment of the National Council on Educational Reform in 1984, Japanese higher education has undergone immense changes in its curriculum, monitoring and evaluation system and in many other areas. This paper tries to clarify their backgrounds and to present some possible suggestions for policy makers' consideration. Higher education reform is one of the most imminent issues for the government not only of Japan but also of most Western industrialized countries, because higher education in those countries have been moving from the stage of massification to that of post- massification since the late 1970s. In the stage of post-massification: 1. Growth of higher education is in the state of plateau after enormous expansion, and the concept of higher education depending on the ever-expanding paradigm will be required to revise. 2.Discussions over desirable scale and structrues of the higher education as a whole and over student admission policies should be commenced. 3.Little increase in public appropriation for higher education will be expected. 4.Much responsibility and initiatives will be taken by the higher educational institutions in their management and in their efforts to solve the facing problems. Under these conditions the present Japanese policy makers are required to establish the Japanese model of higher education developed under its historical and cultural backgrounds which may have international influence. Following points are suggested to be considered by the policy makers: 1.It should be settled how much they can open the admission of higher education, while keeping its academic standard internationally competitive. 2.The present position and the playing roles of the Japanese higher education need to be clarified from a historical perspective. In this discussion the focus should be put on the feature of Japanese higher education, which is expected to provide both basic' general education'. 3.One of the mos feasible measures to improve undergraduate education may be to emphasize understandable and clear fransmission of knowledge in the teaching of courses of each field of science. The majority of faculty members are more interested in research than in teaching, although most of students wish more instruction and satsfactory curriculum in undergraduate education. In this process what is now called' specialized education' will be transformed gradually and integrated into four year general or liberal education in due course of time