Re-examination of the Scheme for Lifelong University System in Higashihiroshima City

In recent years Japan has got caught by a storm of decentralization of power. It has become necessary, therefore, for municipal governments to carry out lifelong learning projects on their own account. Higashihiroshima City has brought a unique scheme for lifelong learning, namely "Lifelong University System (LUS)" which was proposed by the Council for Developing Lifelong Learning in 2001. The purpose of this paper is to show the features of this scheme and to consider problems awaiting solution. The findings are as follows: (1) LUS was planned with an idea of making a learning campus of Higashihiroshima City. To be concrete, LUS has aimed at supporting learning activities of citizen by matching learnning resources to their learning needs. (2) The administration of LUS was supposed to be given to the hand of the Conference for Operating Lifelong University System whose member were 20 leading institutions in Higashihiroshima City. (3) The investigation of the actual conditions indicates that the department of lifelong learning in the local board of education plays more important role than the Conference for Operating Lifelong University. (4) If LUS will achieve the expected results, it shuoud be indispensable to re-examine the concept of it, and re-construct administrative organization on strong foundation