3 A 50-Year History of Toyohashi University of Technology 1. Activities Leading to the Founding of the University 1.1 Establishment of Colleges of Technology (Kosen): From a Single-Track to a Multi-Track System The postwar educational reforms aimed to (1) unify the school system, (2) abolish gender discrimination, (3) extend the period of compulsory education, (4) ensure equal educational opportunity, and (5) expand to education, and they succeeded in dramatically raising the standard of national education. However, the function of training mid-level engineers, which had been carried out before the war by technical schools and higher schools, was lost, and Japan was no longer able to meet the growing social demand for engineers accompanying scientific and technological progress during the postwar reconstruction period and beyond. In 1958, a bill for specialized universities was submitted to the Diet, but coordination with the junior college system, which had only just begun to establish itself, proved impossible. Deliberations repeatedly ended inconclusively. Eventually, on the basis of (1) five-year continuous education after completion of compulsory education, (2) restriction to industrial fields, and (3) changing the purpose from the specialized university proposal’s “fostering abilities necessary for practical life” to “teaching specialized arts and sciences in depth and cultivating the abilities necessary for occupations” (Article 70-2 of the School Education Act), the Proposal to Partially Amend the School Education Act was enacted in June 1961 as Laws No. 144 and No. 145. As a result, the single-track 6-3-3-4 system was transformed into a multi-track one, in which, after the 6-3 compulsory education stage, a five-year College of Technology track was added. In April 1962, following a partial revision of the National School Establishment Act, the first 12 national Colleges of Technology were established. Thereafter, by FY 1974, a total of 54 national colleges, including maritime and radio technology colleges, had been founded. Later, in FY2002, Okinawa College of Technology opened, and following incorporation and the advanced reorganization of four colleges in FY 2009, the 51 national colleges on 55 campuses across the country were brought under the National Institute of Technology, Japan, an incorporated administrative agency. Together with three public and three private colleges, they continue to send many graduates into the workforce every year. By 1965, students in the first cohort of Colleges of Technology had reached the fourth year, and those in the second cohort had reached the third year, making the issue of further education increasingly urgent. Established in response to social needs, Colleges of Technology created a branch from the single-track educational system at age 15, after compulsory education, resembling a return to the prewar multi-track system. However, in terms of access to higher education, they faced the obstacle of reconnecting with the single-track route. At the same time, the issue of connection to the main educational track was inseparable from the very significance of Colleges of Technology as institutions of “complete education,” and turning them into a mere bypass to universities would undermine their raison d’être. What was needed at the time was a solution that would avoid making them just a bypass while also resolving the issue of advancement. Against this background, consideration began regarding the establishment of a new-concept graduate university to which only graduates of Colleges of Technology could be admitted. 1.2 Background to the Concept of the “Graduate School of Technological Science” (tentative name) The National Association of National Colleges of Technology established a Special Committee for the Promotion of a New-Concept University and deliberated repeatedly. At its extraordinary general meeting in March 1972, the Association resolved to submit to the Minister of Education the following petition. Because this was an important document in the founding of the University, and because it is the earliest use of the term “technological science,” the “petition” and the attached document (“On the Establishment of the Graduate School of Technological Science (tentative name)”) are quoted here from The Twenty-Year History of National Colleges of Technology.
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