Every week I take a walk through 名古屋大学 (Nagoya University) on the way to a customer’s office, and every week I’m more amazed with what I find around the campus.
The school has some pretty intelligent people, and I talk to many who are on their way to a Ph.D. or Doctorate in astrophysics, environmental studies, microbiology, and all sorts of other very interesting subjects. Many of these people have told me time and time again how frustrated they’re getting with the constantly rising tuitions. When asked about what the rising tuitions are being put towards the answer is usually along the lines of “わからない” (I don’t know).
That said, I know what the tuitions aren’t being put towards….
Seriously? The cost of sending a Japanese student from elementary school through university (all public) is about 9 million yen. 9 million yen will get you two years at a US college or university. Japanese should be happy they are paying so little (comparatively) for a decent education. Then again you’re Canadian where 4 years of higher education is the cost of a semester at US school
For cheap-ass schools, your figures might be correct, but my post-secondary tuition cost a heck of a lot more than a semester at any of America’s premier schools
That said, the main point I was trying to make with this photo is that the school receives boat loads of cash from the various governments, students, and donations. A full-time yardskeeper would cost no more than 1000円 an hour. If the school can afford to pay eight figures to people with top credentials and little ability to teach, they should have little trouble paying next to nothing for a person (or even small group of people) to maintain what little traversible grass the school has
This isn’t directly related to tuition costs, but relevant as far as salaries but I read on another blog that IT people such as network analysts and techs are underpaid in comparison to their western counterparts.
This could be for any number of reasons but, considering how many people I’ve met who have careers doing things they’ve never had any interest in doing and have yet received certifications for, companies may not know the value of a properly qualified IT person.
**shrugs**
I’d say more about the subject, but it would quickly degrade into a rant about how many organizations on this side of the Pacific can’t grasp the importance of something so intangible as IT
I sense your frustration. In your recent experience do you feel there was some “gaijin” bias or perhaps a circling of the wagons against an external interloper or perhaps a group concensus dynamic working against you?
Gaijin bias? No. But it does seem that there are many people who join a company with no idea what kind of job they’ll receive despite having spent 4 years in school to study a particular subject. This isn’t true in all cases, of course, but quite a large percentage. Many of the IT people I’ve had the opportunity to work with had no interest in being programmers or system administrators, but were recruited to the department because they could use programs like MS Office better than their peers. It’s scary, but I’ve seen several companies in Tokai do this