Faculty Participation in University Decision Making <Article>

In order to promote university reform governance has been a critical issue in Japan. Especially from the standpoint of enhancing presidential leadership, the faculty meeting is a subject of criticism. Currently the government advocates governance reform through amendment of the School Education Act. The purpose of this study is to examine the present situation and future prospects of faculty participation in university management by analyzing questionnaire data collected from 1665 faculty across the nation. These data suggest that about half of the respondents are inclined to increase faculty involvement into the planning process and that both the nature of current university issues and the evaluation to university administrators have a huge effect on differing opinions among faculty due to their low evaluation of university administrators in terms of articulating a vision and their not considering the opinions of faculty and staff members. Therefore faculty seek more involvement in the decision- making process of future university plans. In the discussion of university governance reform, not only faculty participation but also a new style of president leadership is needed