Is Japan Falling Behind in Science and Technology Innovation?

[Grands]

I got a student loan from the government. I spent it all so I loaned money from this website that only gives loans to students :(

Which website?

 

[jtbell]

Why there is this problem if US has the greatest economy of the world?

The money to run universities has to come from somewhere, and people increasingly don't want to pay taxes to support public universities. In the US, public universities are funded (such as they are) by the individual states, not by the federal government. State legislators don't want to raise taxes, so they cut spending wherever they can, including universities.

In my state, South Carolina, state funding for its public universities, per student, has decreased 37% in the last ten years.

https://www.cbpp.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/sfp_highered_sc.pdf

Therefore the universities have raised their tuition fees. This is not new, but part of a long term trend, since probably the 1980s.

Some years ago I remember seeing discussion of one of our two "flagship" universities, Clemson University, possibly leaving the state system and going private, because they were getting so little money from the state.

 

[Grands]

The money to run universities has to come from somewhere, and people increasingly don't want to pay taxes to support public universities. In the US, public universities are funded (such as they are) by the individual states, not by the federal government. State legislators don't want to raise taxes, so they cut spending wherever they can, including universities.
Some years ago I remember seeing discussion of one of our two "flagship" universities, Clemson University, possibly leaving the state system and going private, because they were getting so little money from the state.

In my country there are very few private universities and I don't know why, they doesn't have the necessary tools for students, but this is true maybe because even if they are private, the tuitions fees is not high.

Although this I notice there there are also public universities in the US that are in the top 100, maybe also top 50.

 

[jtbell]

maybe also top 50.

From the Times Higher Education rankings that you linked in another thread:

15 - University of California, Los Angeles
18 - University of California, Berkeley
21 - University of Michigan
25 - University of Washington
31 - University of California, San Diego
33 - Georgia Institute of Technology
37 - University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
43 - University of Wisconsin, Madison
49 - University of Texas, Austin

These are general rankings, not specifically for physics or science in general, but I'm not surprised at any of these. Except maybe UCLA coming in higher than UCB! These are all "flagship" universities in their respective states, and get preferential funding. They've also probably raised tuition a lot over the years, especially for students who don't come from their respective states. "In-state" students always pay lower rates. Even for them, I'm sure it's much more expensive to attend e.g. the University of Michigan rather than Eastern Michigan University or the other lesser public universities in Michigan.

 

[Hawksteinman]

Which website?

Smartpig

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

I accumulated a bit under $100,000 during my fourteen years at Purdue. I wasn't concerned about that bill coming due because I had agreed in advance to do as a civilian a job I used to do while I was on active duty. The day I started work on that job my student loans were paid off by the taxpayers. (I had been doing the work right along while in school, so there was no question about qualifications.)

My point is that you can find programs that will wipe out student loan debt in exchange for a few years of work that you'll be getting paid for. Obviously, the jobs are not sinecures, but working the loans off is better than laboring for decades to get them paid off out of your own income.

 

[Mark44]

I got a student loan from the government. I spent it all so I loaned money from this website that only gives loans to students :(

In the second sentence, do you mean, "I spent it all so I borrowed money from this website ..." If so, they loaned money to you -- you borrowed money from them.

 

[HAYAO]

My brother went to a college in US (private music college), with half of the fee covered by scholarships. The other half, my parents paid (thus despite a rather middle-high class family, my family was actually rather poor). My parents were quite against loans. I think it costed around $35k per year. So half of that is still like \$17.5k. That's a lot. It's not a surprise that my parents often scolded me out of frustration for rather childish and selfish reasons, and often linked it with how much money they spend on me if I were to say anything back.

It seems like the capitalistic nature of US has gone a bit out of control. Insurance and college are probably one of the most notable ones that I am aware of with my limited information. If I understand correctly, there is a law (I don't know if this is a federal or a state law) that states the raising of the limits in the loan a student can have. That means colleges can raise their fees as much as they want because students can still theoretically pay for it. Practically speaking, that's not a very smart thing to do in terms of raising students who are willing to study, which is like investing for the future. I think they need some regulations to keep it from inflation. It's not good for the future. Also the rise in the cost for public universities in US probably can be attributed to the lack of government funds.

I know that part of US got the economy of US becoming the strongest in the world, but at one point, something needs to be done to also raise the "quality" of the economy as well. We can't have like 18% of the money going to 1% of the people. To build a stronger country, it needs to be a little more flattened out so that everyone can have an equal opportunity to participate (whether one can actually take advantage of that opportunity is up to the individual, of course). I know I am not using technical terms here; I am not very educated in economics, finance, and politics.But does whatever I say even matter? I don't know. I'm Japanese and I live in Japan anyway and we have tons of problems here too. Besides, is this off-topic?

 

[Grands]

My brother went to a college in US (private music college), with half of the fee covered by scholarships. The other half, my parents paid (thus despite a rather middle-high class family, my family was actually rather poor). My parents were quite against loans. I think it costed around $35k per year. So half of that is still like $17.5k. That's a lot. It's not a surprise that my parents often scolded me out of frustration for rather childish and selfish reasons, and often linked it with how much money they spend on me if I were to say anything back.

There aren't good universities in Japan?

It seems like the capitalistic nature of US has gone a bit out of control.

What do you mean?
Capitalism has no limits, it's normal to understand that the tuition fees can cost as much as that universities wants.

But does whatever I say even matter? I don't know. I'm Japanese and I live in Japan anyway and we have tons of problems here too. Besides, is this off-topic?

It's not, which kind?

 

[HAYAO]

There aren't good universities in Japan?

Actually, we lived in the States back when my brother was at the age for college, so it was natural for my brother to go to a college in the States.
And no, there aren't really prestigious music colleges in Japan. (Not that I am in any position to say this because I am not a musician.)

What do you mean?
Capitalism has no limits, it's normal to understand that the tuition fees can cost as much as that universities wants.

This is just simply irrelevant to what I just said. You don't need to rush a response. Take your time to read what others are saying.

It's not, which kind?

Scholarships.

 

[Grands]

Actually, we lived in the States back when my brother was at the age for college, so it was natural for my brother to go to a college in the States.
And no, there aren't really prestigious music colleges in Japan. (Not that I am in any position to say this because I am not a musician.)This is just simply irrelevant to what I just said. You don't need to rush a response. Take your time to read what others are saying.Scholarships.

It's strange, I've never expected that someone have to pay so much money for a music college, in Italy it's almost free, the main problem is to hai money to buy the instrument you want to play.
Although this, the main problem is that with a degree of a music college there aren't good job opportunities.

 

[HAYAO]

It's strange, I've never expected that someone have to pay so much money for a music college, in Italy it's almost free, the main problem is to hai money to buy the instrument you want to play.

Yeah. And my brother plays violin. Why out of all the instruments out there did he have to choose one of the most priciest...

Although this, the main problem is that with a degree of a music college there aren't good job opportunities.

I think this applies for any country.

 

[Grands]

I always thought that Japan is a very civilized country and has everything.
I thought also that Japan is very innovative in tech sectors.

 

[HAYAO]

I always thought that Japan is a very civilized country and has everything.
I thought also that Japan is very innovative in tech sectors.

Japan is civilized. There's not doubt about that.

I don't know about Japan these days about innovative technologies. Japanese corporations don't invest a lot in research anymore, and also pays poorly to engineers and scientists. Government has been shrinking funds for science and college (in the long perspective). Shuji Nakamura is one of the famous examples of this. I really feel that this is a very critical situation that needs a change if Japan is ever to stay one of the great in terms of science and technology.

 

[Hawksteinman]

In the second sentence, do you mean, "I spent it all so I borrowed money from this website ..." If so, they loaned money to you -- you borrowed money from them.

Yes [emoji52]

 

[Vanadium 50]

State legislators don't want to raise taxes, so they cut spending wherever they can, including universities.

True, but that's only half of the story. The other half is that university costs per student are rising much faster than inflation in most states. (SC is an exception - look at e.g. Michigan) In some cases, nearly 10% per year. Has the quality of education gone up similarly? I'd be hard pressed to say so. So state legislatures are not just motivated by an unwillingness to raise taxes, but also by the fact they are getting a worse deal.

OK, now some numbers. 88% of student loans never go into default. So it's hard to argue that the majority of them are unpayable, given that the vast majority of them are paid. By the way, this number is similar for car loans.

The median student loan is about $25,000. The median car loan is $30,000. I'd say education is at least as valuable as a car. Millennials represent 40% of the new car market.

What do we know about defaults?

• School quality is inversely correlated with defaults.
• Student academic performance is inversely correlated with defaults.
• Default rates are not independent of major - STEM and business majors have lower default rates than other majors.

 

[Grands]

Japan is civilized. There's not doubt about that.

I don't know about Japan these days about innovative technologies. Japanese corporations don't invest a lot in research anymore, and also pays poorly to engineers and scientists. Government has been shrinking funds for science and college (in the long perspective). Shuji Nakamura is one of the famous examples of this. I really feel that this is a very critical situation that needs a change if Japan is ever to stay one of the great in terms of science and technology.

I can't believe I'm reading this, are you serious?
Engineers and scientists are low payed in Japan?
Company doesn't invest in R&D?
This are the reason that make me to leave Italy, it's so strange to understand that in Japan where train reach a specs of 400km/h has this kind of problems.