Education Quarterly Reviews
ISSN 2621-5799
Published: 04 September 2024
Is there a Gap Between the Qualities and Abilities that Universities Foster and those Expected by Companies?
Yutaka Kurihara
Aichi University, Japan
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10.31014/aior.1993.07.03.604
Pages: 166-174
Keywords: Company, Education, Expectation, Gap, University
Abstract
As research and educational institutions, universities have had a role that must be played universally. Japanese law stipulates that “Universities, as the core of scholarly activities, are to contribute to the development of society by cultivating advanced knowledge and specialized skills, inquiring deeply into the truth to create new knowledge, and broadly offering the fruits of these endeavors to society.” However, with the increase in the number of learners going on to university, the need to respond to the demands of society, especially companies and local communities, has clearly increased compared to the past. Together with the dilution of the view of work and the emergence of diverse needs on the part of learners, universities are increasingly required to cultivate practical knowledge and skills, as well as foster attitudes and motivation for employment. This study analyzes the relationship between the university's evaluation of “ability to act,” “interpersonal ability,” “intellectual and academic ability,” and “originality” on the part of companies, and the evaluation items of the author's classes, namely, the final periodic exam, quizzes, reports, participation in classes, and the degree of pre-study and post-class study. From empirical regressions, a positive and significant relationship is observed for the final exam and so on, but a positive effect was not necessarily observed for some endpoints. Therefore, universities and the business community team up to tackle this expectation gap.
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