大学新設不認可 文科相の独断が混乱を招いた

The Yomiuri Shimbun (Nov. 5, 2012)
Education minister's outrageous decision generates chaos
大学新設不認可　文科相の独断が混乱を招いた（11月4日付・読売社説）

It was a baffling decision. What we feared might happen has come to pass.
　理解に苦しむ判断である。
　危惧していたことが起きてしまった。

Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister Makiko Tanaka has rejected the applications for government approval to establish three new universities. Tanaka has overturned, on her own judgment, a report by the council for university chartering and school juridical persons--an advisory body to the minister--that favored endorsing the establishment of the three schools. This is apparently the first time in 30 years that an education minister has reversed the council's approval for setting up a university.
　田中文部科学相が、３大学の新設申請を不認可とした。文科相の諮問機関である大学設置・学校法人審議会が「新設を認可する」とした答申を独断で覆した。過去３０年で初のケースという。

At a news conference Friday, Tanaka said, "A large number of universities have been established, but the quality of education in universities has been in alarming decline." She added that the approval system for setting up universities needs to be reviewed from top to bottom.
　田中文科相は記者会見で、「大学はたくさん作られてきたが、教育の質自体が低下している」と述べ、現行の大学設置認可制度を見直す考えを明らかにした。

Tanaka, however, did not give any explicit reason why the government will not allow approval for the three universities.
　だが、なぜ、この３校の新設を認めないのか、という明確な理由は示さなかった。

Some ministry officials said Tanaka "simply made a policy decision as minister." However, we think it can only be described as an outrageous decision stemming from the misguided concept of "politician-led decision-making."
文科省は「大臣の政策的判断」と説明するが、政治主導をはき違えた、あまりに乱暴な判断と言うほかない。

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Lack of consistency

The council's report was compiled after extensively examining the planned schools' faculty and other education arrangements and their management and financial planning based on university establishment guidelines set by the education ministry.
　そもそも、設置審の認可答申は、文科省が定めた大学設置基準などに基づいて、３校の教育体制や財務計画を精査した末に出された結論である。

Admittedly, the minister has the final say when it comes to accepting or rejecting the applications. But Tanaka's refusal to go along with the establishment of three new schools that the council said met the guidelines could be criticized as an abuse of power.
　文科相が最終的な認可権限を持つとはいえ、基準を満たした３校の新設を大臣の判断で認めなかったことは、「裁量権の乱用」と批判されても仕方がない。

On top of this, the education minister gave the go-ahead to new departments and postgraduate courses at other universities--as endorsed by the advisory council. Can she clearly explain the inconsistency between these approvals and her rejection of the establishment of the three universities?
　しかも、田中文科相は、設置審が認可答申を出した、他大学の学部や大学院の新設については認可している。大学新設だけを不認可としたこととの整合性をきちんと説明できるのだろうか。

The minister's arbitrary decision will unleash immeasurable confusion.
　文科相の独断と暴走がもたらす混乱は計り知れない。

The three universities that had been preparing to open next spring had secured teachers and constructed facilities. Mayor Motomu Hozumi of Akita city, which was planning to open one of the schools, to be named Akita Municipal College of Fine Arts, has unsurprisingly expressed his intention to urge Tanaka to rescind her decision.
　来春開校予定だった大学側は校舎整備を進め、教員も確保している。３校の一つ、秋田公立美術大の開校を目指す穂積志・秋田市長が、不認可の撤回を求める方針を表明したのは当然と言える。

Understandably, people wishing to enroll at these schools have been caught off guard at being told that the schools have been rejected so soon before they were scheduled to open.
　入学希望者から「直前に言われても困る」といった声が上がるのも無理はない。

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Review of universities needed

Conditions at universities are becoming increasingly stringent.
　一方で、大学を取り巻く状況は厳しさを増している。

Despite fewer students due to the chronically low birthrate, new universities have been established one after another since regulations were eased. As a result, the number of universities has swollen 50 percent more than the figure of 20 years ago.
　少子化で学生が減少しているにもかかわらず、規制緩和により大学の新設が続き、大学の数は２０年前の１・５倍にまで膨らんだ。

Some universities have been struggling to stay afloat financially as enrollment falls below quotas. Just last month, the education ministry decided to order an education corporation running a university in Gunma Prefecture to be disbanded because of sloppy management.
　大学の中には、定員割れで経営難に陥るところもあり、先月には群馬県内で大学を運営する学校法人に文科省が解散命令を発動することを決めたばかりだ。

The government's university policy needs to be reviewed. But this overhaul must be kept separate from the issue of approving or disapproving the establishment of individual universities, and be discussed in detail by such entities as the ministry's Central Council for Education from medium- and long-range perspectives.
　大学政策の見直しは必要だが、その際には、個別の大学の認可とは切り離し、中長期的な視点から、中央教育審議会などの場でしっかりと議論すべきである。

That a conclusion reached in line with existing rules on an important matter is reversed because of grandstanding by a trouble-making minister will only deprive the administration of its continuity and generate confusion at education facilities.
　問題閣僚のスタンドプレーで現行ルールに沿った結論が覆されるようでは行政の継続性は失われ、教育現場が混乱するだけだ。

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Nov. 4, 2012)
（2012年11月4日01時34分  読売新聞）