Universities to help subsidize students' costs for online learning

Education funding in Japan is extremely underfunded by the government-where does the tax money go to?

So there are university students in a developed country in the 21st century who don't own personal computers and lack internet access. Wow. One of the colleges mentioned is a technology institute!. Double wow. Are they Japanese students still using slide rules and abacuses?

So there are university students in a developed country in the 21st century who don't own personal computers and lack internet access. Wow. One of the colleges mentioned is a technology institute!. 

There is more technology in toilet seats here than in the average classroom. It’s ridiculous.

The university that says that they are able to provide the same level of education online as off, needs to be careful! They are effectively saying what we suspected all along: there is no need for face-to-face classes. This crisis will expose the whole higher education scam in this country.

And a translation issues in the article:

"My heart bleeds...."

To me, as a native speaker, it means: "I couldn't care less."

There is more technology in toilet seats here than in the average classroom. It’s ridiculous.

Totally depends upon where one goes. I have sent three to Japanese and US universities, I am intimately aware of the differences, but dont use the same brush to color all the "average" classrooms" here.

I think some of you are misunderstanding the problem. The problem isn't that students don't have a PC or wi-fi at home. The problem is that not many students will have *exclusive*** **use of a PC. Most households have one PC and that is enough. If it were being used, a student could always go to the uni's computer lab and use one there or maybe even bum a friend's.

Now, a uni student may have online classes and her siblings also have online classes and mom or dad have to telework - all on a single PC at home and most schools have shut down their campuses including the computer labs. What is a family supposed to do? Get a PC for everybody? That's a lot of coin. You can do a lot on smartphones, but type a report? No. Not to mention hardware they may need. A quick check of my students showed that while almost all of them had a PC at home, only half had a web camera (an the shelves are empty now). A lot of families and school are in a bind. I've already had one of my students contact me to say she could not attend a ZOOM meeting because her father needed the computer.

"provide the same high level of education as in normal years, even though part of it has to be done through online teaching."

This is just being said for PR purposes. At my uni, most of us are realists. We know the best we can do is try to lay a strong foundation for more intensive learning in the second semester (hopefully we'll be back on campus then). We've already decided to unofficially stop using the official grading scale and make every course basically pass / fail.

Education funding in Japan is extremely underfunded by the government-where does the tax money go to?

The same is true in Australia; Educational funding, especially to Universities, has been slashed beyond the bone. My University in Melbourne - one of the biggest in the country with one of the top Faculties of Education in the World - had its funding cut by almost $4 million the year I graduated.

Universities are supposed to make up the short-fall with fee-paying students, most of whom come from China. With the pandemic now in full swing and students from all over the World blocked from entering the country, most Universities in Australia are facing significant drops in their cash-flow.

Totally depends upon where one goes. I have sent three to Japanese and US universities, I am intimately aware of the differences, but dont use the same brush to color all the "average" classrooms" here.

You’re correct. The international schools here are current on technology in the classroom.

@tora

Yeah, but only if you intend it as sarcasm. Some people speak straight. This expression is used appropriately here, in my opinion.

@collegepark30349

Sorry but there is absolutely no excuse for not having regular access to a PC at the University level. This is NOT the early 90s. Even in the early 90s most students had their own laptops at my uni.

Students in Japan all seem to have 100,000 yen iPhones, and most spend up to 10,000 a month data plans, yet cry out they can't afford to buy a laptop. The issue is that they NOT getting computer literacy skills before university. That is unacceptable.

Students should be required to have their own PC at the University level, especially in a developed country like Japan. Universities should not have to put up with students wanting to submit assignments handwritten or via iPhone.

A school I used to work at is doing its classes online, but students have to log in and can only view the lesson at a certain time. Once the lesson is over, the video is taken down. I think that is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Why not let the students view it as many times as they like. Some of the international students are really struggling as they find it hard to follow what the teacher is saying. If they had access to the content more than once, they could learn at their own pace. Also, all students were warned not to record or publish on SNS any of the material. I doubt this has anything to do with copyright, and more they don't want others to see what they are teaching!

I teach at university (national, not private), and maybe because it is science, it is perfectly doable online. Classes on zoom can be attended from a smart phone, and I still have to meet a student who doesnt have a laptop, tablet, or smartphone capable of online classes. In Tokyo at least.

On the other hand, the international school my son attends offers quite minimal education online: daily assignments and about 2 online meetings per week, while maintaining that the educational level is perfectly fine and charging full fee. And they already decided that until fall everything will be online

A recent survey by a university where I work in Japan found that less than 50% of the students had their own PCs. This was across all student years. However, they all had smartphones. Since the cost of PCs is relatively low (from20,000yen) I suspect its probably more about personal choice. Monthly wifi costs are more likely to be problematic for students living away from home.

According to the OECD Japan spends even less on education than Australia does, as well as most other countries....

50,000 yen each to its 12,000 students to help them equip themselves with adequate internet connections and personal computers or tablets

A country where university students don’t have computers or internet access?

@collegepark30349

I think some of you are misunderstanding the problem. The problem isn't that students don't have a PC or wi-fi at home. The problem is that not many students will have *exclusive*** **use of a PC. Most households have one PC and that is enough. If it were being used, a student could always go to the uni's computer lab and use one there or maybe even bum a friend's.

The article is about university students, not high school kids. Most university students live on their own.

I'm just hoping the universities will pay us for all the extra prep time we're having to put into classes.