Freedom in scholarship: its significance for universities in their formative years

The ‘MEXT Grand Design for Higher Education toward 2040’ Report highlights the importance of nourishing intellectual breadth as have other cultural and educational policies. In recent years, many universities in Japan have introduced liberal arts into their curricula.

As the concept of liberal arts is often misunderstood as referring simply to knowledge in general, the discussion began with Yoshimi commenting that the notions of general and liberal knowledge may contradict each other.

Iwakiri’s reply was that general knowledge can also be expressed as culture, which derives from the concept of ‘cultivation’, an agricultural metaphor related more or less to a particular plot of land. In this sense, the words ‘culture’ and ‘liberal’ differ in that the latter connotes freedom.

Culture defines the customs and traditions rooted in a nation, region and land. It contributes to their development, by providing a foundation. On the other hand, liberal arts, which came into being in an educational setting, originated from freedom in scholarship.

In a medieval European university, the seven liberal arts were: grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy, which were in a way established opposite the three disciplines, theology, law and medicine, when universities first arose in the 12^th to 13^th centuries. Theology served God; the law, the state; and, medicine, the people. These practical disciplines prepared students for specific professions; but liberal arts established value in the act of learning itself, with no particular objective such as attending to the state, the city or an authority.
It is clear then that culture, which is deeply related to the notion of the state and the locality, is not always synonymous with liberal arts, which forms the basis for modern day academic freedom.

Yoshimi：Liberal knowledge in the medieval ages was founded both on a horizontal freedom of movement and a vertical relation with the powers that offered protection from the local authorities. In 12^th to 13^th century Europe when urban networks were formed, students travelled for months to seek the mentorship of outstanding scholars. Fearing oppression from local political leaders, they sought protection from privileged powers such as the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor to justify their autonomy. The driving force that sought freedom in the interest of scholarship provided the impetus for shaping the prototype of future universities.

Iwakiri：Freedom is also an important concept in social settings, academia, and intellectual ideas, but I feel it is the most fundamental aspect of liberal arts.

The founding of ICU as a liberal arts college, a peerless global standard institution

The tradition of liberal arts at the core of the education at ICU lays emphasis on the learning endeavor itself in pursuing whole-person development and maturity of the personality. In this paragraph, the two scholars highlight the characteristics of ICU as a liberal arts college.

Yoshimi：ICU was founded immediately after Japan’s defeat in World War II, in an attempt to introduce an American-style, liberal arts college in occupied Japan. I think the educational model of elite American colleges was directly imported in a good sense.

Iwakiri：I agree. With deep regret for the circumstances that led to World War II, ICU sought to cultivate personnel to establish peace in the world. Its unique genesis laid the foundation for an unprecedented proving ground for creating a unique community in Japan.
With approximately 3000 students and 150 full-time faculty, its student-teacher ratio is on a par with global standard liberal arts colleges. There is active interaction among students and with faculty. This kind of emphasis on dialogue, an essential element in liberal arts, may not be possible at larger institutions with more students.

Yoshimi：The characteristics of a university are formed in the way in which different paradigms are combined. ICU has been very tactful in this regard.

Iwakiri： I would like our students to cultivate perspectives in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences simultaneously when they study liberal arts.
This is not simply a matter of studying across the arts and sciences. It is a process of absorbing ways to approach humankind and the world that work in harmony. This includes developing perspectives in a social context and from a scientific view, as well as for the creative process in irreproducible works of art, all of which are crucial for students to understand the human condition and to connect with the larger world.

Yoshimi：My impression of ICU since the days of President Norihiko Suzuki is that it has been very audacious in introducing the major/minor and double major system. These arrangements are the norm worldwide, especially at American universities, but not in Japan. This shows that ICU is blazing the trail as the domestic front-runner in higher education.
We should perhaps talk of multi-faceted learning rather than that across the arts and sciences. Disparate disciplines co-exist and provide deeper academic perspectives that work together to intensify and diversify our views. It’s important to combine horizontal and vertical learning.

The college and university, ICU and the University of Tokyo Their similarities and differences

The previous paragraph delved into those aspects of ICU as a college that implements a liberal arts education. In general, a university usually has several faculties that offer students a wide variety of disciplines to choose from. ICU has a single college of liberal arts, but offers a wide range of subjects to study.

An emblematic university in Japan would arguably be the University of Tokyo. Despite different pathways taken by the two institutions over the years, a connection can be traced back to the founding days of ICU in the aftermath of World War II.

Even before the basic plan for the establishment of ICU was resolved on June 15, 1949, at the Gotemba Conference, records show that Shigeru Nambara, the last prewar President of the Imperial University of Tokyo and Tadao Yanaihara, his successor and first postwar President, contributed to the thinking behind the foundation of ICU. In fact, Yanaihara delivered a congratulatory message at the Dedication Ceremony of Establishment in 1953. Yoshimi points out that this reflected a problem they saw within their University.

Yoshimi:：The Imperial University of Tokyo had a rigid, faculty-centered structure, as it adopted the Western model during the Meiji Era when it was established. For example, the Faculty of Medicine emulated the German system; the Faculty of Engineering, the Scottish system; the Faculty of Law, the French system; and, the Faculty of Agriculture, the American system. This was an attempt to absorb the best of cutting-edge Western intelligence in the most efficient way possible.
This is how a firm vertical structure was put in place, with emphasis on the autonomy of each faculty rather than academic freedom, and this became the model for larger universities in Japan.

How did ICU come into being as a liberal arts college under the strong influence of the American Occupation? It was perhaps envisioned as a way to overcome the disconnect between faculties at Imperial Universities, which had been a problem from the Meiji era.

Global-standard liberal arts firmly rooted in the ICU community

Issues in higher education in Japan are not limited to vertical segmentation. Another problem is the prevalence of the lecture-centered approach in the classroom, modeled after the tradition at Imperial Universities. The number of subjects students take in the curriculum also corroborates this fact.

In a survey conducted by the National Institute for Educational Policy Research in March 2016, first-year through third-year students took 10-14 courses during the half-year term, which amounts to taking courses in 4 different subjects a day. This makes it difficult to concentrate on each subject and for knowledge to sink in.

Yoshimi：When you try to impart an all-inclusive body of knowledge, the volume is so immense that the priority for the instructor becomes merely imparting the necessary elements rather than taking a learner-centered approach. This is probably the most problematic issue in Japan.

Iwakiri:：At ICU, we limit the number of courses students take per term. They typically meet for a course three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and take about 4-5 courses per term.

Yoshimi：We should all emulate the ICU model, which reflects the approach most universities take around the world. When students take 4-5 courses per term, they can concentrate more on each subject. They will probably work harder because failing a course can affect their graduation timeline. Students see their instructor and fellow classmates several times a week. It’s a shift from all-inclusive to deeper instruction in small numbers. This is essentially what the learning experience at university should be.

The language barrier is another serious problem when considering whether Japanese universities satisfy global standards.

For example, compared to Korean students, who have been studying English in elementary school as a compulsory subject at a much earlier stage than in Japan, and Chinese students, who are always eager to study abroad, their Japanese peers display inadequate skills in languages other than their mother tongue. The pandemic has further aggravated the situation, with a strong reluctance to study abroad.

Yoshimi said, “ICU students are more than enthusiastic about studying abroad. That stands out among Japanese universities even though this is common in most places in the world. This is invaluable when we think about the reluctance of Japanese students to study abroad.”

Current enthusiasm for a liberal arts education, its universal value

ICU offers a bilingual education with flexible major arrangements, characteristics common to universities around the world. In the last paragraph, the two delved into what makes ICU ‘ICU’.

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, due to re-acknowledgement of the importance of liberal arts education in recent years, many other universities in Japan have incorporated the tradition in their programs.

Iwakiri：We have many more liberal arts universities in Japan. That in itself is a good thing: something of value is being adopted widely. I see it as an effort to spread the tradition together, rather than us losing our edge or being caught up with.

Yoshimi： I agree. The world sees the education at ICU as standard practice, as liberal arts was the basis of higher education. In its long history, specialized education was not the only objective of instruction: an institution that does not offer a liberal arts program would be considered a vocational school, rather than a university. Even vocational schools now emphasize the importance of liberal arts. That brings us to the fact that scholastic endeavor needs freedom or leeway for the inquisitive individual to move in a liberal environment.

Iwakiri：The college of arts and sciences at other universities is often placed as an administrative unit along with faculties of law or economics, but ICU has a single college of liberal arts, with specialized majors in the curriculum. This is a big difference that I usually ask applicants and their parents to understand.

Yoshimi：It’s the faculty as opposed to the college. Historically, faculties and colleges were disparate organizational units in academia, so there is a contradiction in establishing a college of arts and sciences on an equal footing with faculties. The college provides a bridge across disparate disciplines and faculties. The idea of liberal arts holding the whole university together, is now spreading among medium-sized universities in Japan.

Iwakiri：I hear quite often that ICU alumni who go on to graduate schools have a difficult time in their first year because they lack some of the specialized knowledge that their classmates had absorbed in their undergraduate years. We do admit that to be a weakness of our system, but from their second year onwards, they do as well as their peers from other colleges. They possess a potential that accelerates growth after they catch up, a result of the instruction in liberal arts that unifies the educational landscape at ICU.

Yoshimi：That students lack some knowledge is not a problem, as long as they are thoroughly trained in basic thinking and debating skills. Those are the very competencies Japanese universities need to empower students with.

The liberal arts education at ICU does not aim to impart an all-inclusive body of knowledge. The emphasis is on nurturing multilateral perspectives and basic indispensable skills such as critical thinking and debate, to cultivate the ability for lifelong learning. The education has a universal value on a par with universities around the world to cultivate the skills for a well-lived life in a global society.

What makes ICU ‘ICU’ is simply the community and the distinct culture on campus. As Yoshimi tells us, it is the particular culture on a par with that of the world with the whole university committed to liberal arts. That is at the root of ICU’s education.