Japanese Universities to Cut Humanities and Social Sciences

More than two dozen Japanese universities have announced that they will reduce or altogether eliminate their academic programs in the humanities and social sciences, following a dictum from Tokyo to focus on disciplines that “better meet society’s needs.”

The government’s proposal, which came in a June 8 letter from Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura. In it, he encouraged Japan’s institutes of higher education to take “active steps to abolish [these programs]” or convert them to scholastic opportunities in the natural sciences.

Law and economics fall within the purview of the condemned disciplines. Seventeen universities will no longer recruit students to study them; the rest will eliminate elective courses within them. The Universities of Tokyo and Kyoto — Japan’s only two universities to clear the top hundred in world university rankings — said they would not heed the government’s call.

Time

This news is a little old but haven't seen anything in ATS about it. I though only dictatorships dictate what a university can or cannot teach, this seems to be trending in other places too, in places like Venezuela the government want to choose what discipline each person will study depending on the needs of the country.

Some may see it as no more lawyers, hurray!!! but this is actually a hit to freedoms, more like something the new world order may do.

According to the minister the main idea of this initiative is to increase Japan's research in natural science without funding any further this area, for others this is just a way from the conservative Abe government to dumb down and remove dissidents that are usually formed in social science.

Takamitsu Sawa, president of Shiga University, wrote an op-ed in the Japan Times denouncing the ministry’s philosophy, calling its proposals “outrageous” and its leaders “anti-intellectuals.” She cited one member of an Education Ministry panel who purportedly claimed that humanities students at most Japanese universities should study “software programming for bookkeeping and accounting in place of Paul Samuelson’s ‘Economics,’ and the skills of orally translating between Japanese and English rather than reading Shakespeare’s works.”

I do see a degree in fine arts as a waste of time but if someone want to waste their life they should be able to take one of those disciplines, the more you have to chose from is always better than the communist way of do you want to be a slave in gray or live in a Siberian prison. and at the end of the day i prefer to have a scummy lawyer to defend me of the government that not having anything at all.

So what you think ATS, hurray for more science and no more lawyers, or a sign of the NWO?

a reply to: Indigent

Sounds like a fine idea to me. We should adopt similar policies.

Let the 'humanities' survive like trade schools....supply and demand.

Brilliant idea!


Very least think the fools who take it fund it themselves.

University's should be for:

Biology
Physics
Chemistry
Mathematics
Engineering
Medicine
Veterinarian
Computer engineering
Law
History




No one needs a stupid piece of paper in a libral arts desgree to tell them what a special little snow flake they are and it certainly should not be on the tax payer!

a reply to: nwtrucker

I am more of the idea that the bigger the offering the better, and governments should have no say in superior education, the y mess primary and secondary enough

a reply to: crazyewok

Did you saw law is to be shut down too right?

a reply to: Indigent

Hmm, I agree on the mess at lower levels, Yet, I see the high end equally messed up, if not even worse, than the lower....without gov't intrusion.?

Go figure.

originally posted by: Indigent
a reply to: nwtrucker

I am more of the idea that the bigger the offering the better, and governments should have no say in superior education, the y mess primary and secondary enough

The the government's has to put money i to it then dam right it should have a say.

Tax payer money needs to be spent to give the best offering

And giving a srxually confussed teen "space" to sort out what him and his bros want to do be it flip burgers or dunk fries while getting # faced drunk is NOT got use of tax payer money!

originally posted by: Indigent
a reply to: crazyewok

Did you saw law is to be shut down too right?

No i listed it in the essential degree that produce careers.

As much as we hate lawyer we still need them.

What we dont need is libral art grads.

But if there are too many lawyers in japan? Cut em off I say !

Perhaps some humanities courses are just indulging the interests of students, but I would have thought that having people who have studied Law would be a basic essential for any society. The study of Law is one of the reasons why universities evolved in the first place.
Again, I don't understand economics, but surely any modern society needs to be served by people who do. And where are they going to acquire their knowledge?
These fields are as utilitarian as chemistry and metallurgy. People need to have studied them in order to explain what is going wrong.

a reply to: Indigent

If a university wants to have a turtle psychology department and issue credentials to that effect, they should be allowed to.

That should inform everybody as to the legitimacy and utility of that institution.

The idea that the state should dictate what topics can be offered is wholly antithetical to the very concept of intellectual freedom.

At what point can it be said that not only may those subjects not be "taught" but, that they may not be "learned"?

damn imma gonna miss how to be an obnoxious ethnic warrior, appalling feminist warrior, masters of basket weaving, fellow of peeing on a crucifix in a jar and calling it art and doctorate of navel lint appreciation and taxonomy.

some of these degree plans get in by mistake...

they are not courses on socio-pathology they are, instead, courses on how to be a sociopath and leverage it for moolah or political leverage. how to be a complete public posterior of varying sorts and bank on it.

My wife wasted four years of college getting a degree in 'Englsh', however, I support her right to get that degree if that is what she really wanted. People should be free to study things that interest them. Life is about living the life YOU want and not conforming to what society says is normal.

Individual freedom must be protected and I find the idea of any state or government exercising control over my fellow humans to be unacceptable.

a reply to: Metallicus

I support her right as well, but, why should I have to take courses in Romance Literature, Art Appreciation and Sociology to get a degree in Mechanical Engineering?

a reply to: JIMC5499

I am uncomfortable with ordinary non-hostile elective behavior being specifically referred to as a "right".

It isn't that I don't think we should be free but, our "right" is to not be interfered with, not to "get" or "have access" to anything.

The language matters, I hope I'm not being pedantic.

I am no fan of institutionalized educational facilities on the whole so, if there are mandatory courses, that is also wrong but, not dictated by government so outside of the scope of this I think.

originally posted by: JIMC5499
a reply to: Metallicus

I support her right as well, but, why should I have to take courses in Romance Literature, Art Appreciation and Sociology to get a degree in Mechanical Engineering?

The point of electives is to broaden your mind. Universities like to produce graduates with an expanded understanding of the world. Many people end up discovering that they have an interest in a subject they never would have ended up taking if not for being required to take a course outside their field of study.

a reply to: greencmp

One can indulge in any education one chooses. Just don't assume we should have to be burden with that cost.

Go to a private institution and pay for it yourself. Thus freedom of choice is maintained....

originally posted by: nwtrucker
a reply to: greencmp

One can indulge in any education one chooses. Just don't assume we should have to be burden with that cost.

Go to a private institution and pay for it yourself. Thus freedom of choice is maintained....

Where do you live that you don't have to pay for university yourself?

on the contrary the point of electives is to pad the revenue of the school. it may indeed broaden the mind. and they may make some high sounding rationalization to that effect but it is an offer you cannot refuse. "nice degree plan you got there...it'd be a shame if something happened to it." try to get a degree just taking the core courses.

a reply to: DantesPeak

Fine, 'subsidized education' is more accurate.

The private institution is still valid-and more expensive- option.

P.S. If the left gets their way it would be 'free' and then you'd really see an intrusion into the curriculum then...probably enforced liberal arts
and humanities.....