Structural Changes in the Higher Education System in Japan : Reflections on the Comparative Study of Higher Education Using the Theory of Martin Trow

Abstract

Higher education are now in a global state of flux. Japan is no exception,. The most persuasive for analyzing the basic structune and direction of change is the structural-historical theory of the American sociologist Martin Trow. This is a generalization of his "elite to mass to universal" based on first American and then Eumpean experience. The purpose of this paper is to use the Japanese experience as a case study for testing the validity of Trow's formulations as comparative higher education theory. In comparing the Japanese case with that of Europe and the Uitited States, this paper validates in principal the appropriateness of the basic theory of transition put forwant by Trow. At the same time, doubts are raised on the issue of wether it is possible to postulate a single path for the transition "elite to mass universal."