Adaptable junior college learns that change can be a beautiful thing
The number of junior colleges peaked in the 1996 academic year at 502 but has now fallen to 420, according to the Education, Science and Technology Ministry. Of them, 51.7 percent have been unable to meet their enrollment targets, according to the Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools in Japan. In their efforts to survive, some junior colleges have found success by offering programs similar to those available at vocational schools.
Sakai Women's Junior College in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, is one such example, offering its students courses in beauticians' skills. The school also offers its students special amenities such as fitness and relaxation facilities and a lunch buffet, all free of charge.
These student perks were initiated by President Kanae Shigeyama, 55, who was inspired by the beauticians she met at more than 1,000 shops she visited before setting up the beauty course in 2000.
"They told me that women today have poor hair condition, apparently due to unhealthy lifestyle factors," the president said, explaining why the junior college offers its food and health care services.
Sakai Women's Junior College opened in 1965 with two departments, Japanese history and home economics. In 1994, it had more than 800 applicants for its 160-student enrollment quota, but the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake forced the two-year college to cancel that year's entrance exams, damaging its popularity. Four years later, the college had fewer applications than its enrollment limit.
It was around that time that Shigeyama took over the management due to the sudden death of her father. She aimed at revitalizing the college by determining the needs of students and their parents.
Shigeyama first looked at care for the elderly as a likely employment field for her graduates, because the government was about to introduce a nursing insurance system, but she also wondered if today's young women would be interested in such a field as many of them were brought up in smaller families with less contact with the elderly than earlier generations were used to.
Ultimately, the president came up with a way of blending beauty and welfare.
"Trimming their hair and giving them makeup can make the elderly feel more cheerful, and this can be applied in the welfare field. I thought even today's young women can do that," she recalled.
Some of the faculty opposed the idea, saying it was not necessary for a junior college to offer programs similar to those at vocational schools, but they finally gave the go-ahead.
"It used to be fine for junior colleges to offer liberal arts education only, but today's students and their parents are more keen about programs that will help them secure jobs," Shigeyama said. "I believe the new mission of junior colleges is to offer a set of two things--more improved liberal arts education and programs helpful for their future careers, such as encouraging them to acquire certificates."
Sakai's beauty course invites beauty shop owners as faculty members with the aim of helping students acquire hands-on techniques and beauty sense. The college saw all its applicants pass the national beautician examinations in 2005 and again in 2006.
As it also gets more and more job offers from cosmetic companies and nursing homes, the college now boasts a 100-percent employment rate for its graduates.
Today, the college focuses only on fields related to beauty and lifestyle. Following the beauty course, the college added two more courses specializing in makeup and stage arts, with the fourth one set up two years ago with a focus on medical care.
Thanks to the reform, the number of applicants to the college has risen to around 300 in recent years. But for the sake of stable management, there are no plans to expand the size of the college or make it coeducational.
"We'd like to pursue what only a small-sized women's junior college can do," said Shigeyama.