2020 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Politics of Higher Education Marketisation
| Project/Area Number |
17K03563
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| Research Institution | Waseda University |
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Principal Investigator |
C・J Pokarier 早稲田大学, 国際学術院, 教授 (70386697)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2017-04-01 – 2022-03-31
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| Keywords | universities / COVID-19 / campus / online / borders / market / disruption |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The COVID-19 pandemic ironically has had both very negative and positive impacts on the progress of the project. My time to spend on the project was drastically limited by the challenges of shifting to full online teaching. Conducting interviews with sources, in Japan and abroad, became impossible. Planned conferences , to present research findings, were cancelled. However two excellent virtual conferences - one part of the ECPR conference - and a workshop in November on the theme of 'academe time' - were organised and I presented research findings to both events. From the latter, plans for virtual workshop events in 2021 are being developed. Analytically, the COVID pandemic has had to big impacts on the research questions. Pre-COVID, the research was already focused on two themes have been strongly reaffirmed.
Firstly, focus on the future of the higher education campus in a virtual age, has become the predominant topic amongst university leaderships, making my research very timely. Secondly, the focus also on the international aspects of higher education marketisation, through the case study of Australia has been strongly affirmed, owing to the complete disruption of that 'trade' owing to closed borders, the resulting financial disruption to universities, and political debate, has made the Australian case the ideal means to explore these issues of marketisation. Topic focus are affirmed, but research time has been severely lacking. Extensive updated data collection has been undertaken, nonetheless.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
4: Progress in research has been delayed.
Reason
As discussed above, the conduct of research suffered a severe setback owing to the demands of switching to full online teaching. On the other hand, the pandemic's disruptive impacts on higher education confirmed the importance of the research themes, direction, and case study selection.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
In 2021, thanks to a one year extension, intensive research into the Australian case will be conducted virtually, with students returning to campus a research assistant will be hired for further examination of the Japanese case, and the research will also broaden to encompass a wider range of international examples, utilising secondary sources. Budget that was intended for international travel will instead be directed to securing more data sources, and also invested in capability for conducting online events to disseminate research findings.
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| Causes of Carryover |
Travel was impossible owing to COVID-19, and case study focus has become broader, so additional secondary data sources will be procured in 2021.
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