Fostering Creative, Practical, and Professional Engineers: National Institute of Technology (KOSEN) in Japan

Abstract

National Institute of Technology (KOSENs) are unique colleges of higher education in Japan, which provide students a 5-year engineering education program and accept students from the age of 15 years old or older. In 2012, about half a century has passed since its establishment and KOSENs are now well known among manufacturing and development companies which support Japan as a top country for science and engineering in the world. Furthermore, the international reputation of KOSENs is expanding as well. This chapter identifies the factors for the expansion of the field by asking: (1) Why has the KOSEN system continued and been maintained during such a long period? (2) Why has KOSEN attracted international attention in recent years? and what is the KOSENs strategy under the engineering industry that responds rapidly to global changes? The factor of the first question was founded (1) KOSENs’ fixable transformation of major field to respond the industry demands, (2) the important role which contributes the higher education access to wide rages of people especially comes from lower socio-economic families and lives the remote area, and (3) unique institution’s competition to promote the students’ motivation of creating something new. Apart from that, the assured quality of facility, curriculum, and teaching force of KOSEN were also founded. The factor of second question was founded (1) systematical system to accept international students and (2) the expansion of international networking.