Future View of Engineers Education at the "College of Technology" in Japan

The new engineer educational institution "College of Technology" was founded in 1962 in Japan. In the background of the action, practical engineers were required to support the industrial growth followed by the reconstruction after the Second World War. A total of 63 Colleges of Technology, called "Kosen" in Japanese have been established. All the Colleges are small in scale including about 1000 students with 4 or 5 departments for basic engineering field. 55 national, 5 public and 3 private colleges were established and are now running. All of the national colleges were integrated in the National College Corporation as well as the national universities in Japan in 2005. Compare to university and technical college, the unique points of the new institution were early commencement and long term program for the practical engineer education. Usually students enter the College at the age of 15 after finishing nine-year compulsory education though universities accept students of the age of 18 after the senior high school. Students are selected at the entrance by the examination and the results of junior high school studies. Most of Colleges of Technology have dormitories for the students in the campus and financial support systems. After finishing the 5 year basic course, 60% of students get job positions and the other 40% continue studying at the advanced course or at the university.