Message from Representative Director
The Institution for Accreditation and Quality Assurance of Professional Higher Education (QAPHE) was initially established as the Institution for Beauty Business Evaluation and certified by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology as a evaluation and accreditation organization for professional graduate schools in the beauty business on July 31, 2012.
All professional graduate schools must undergo evaluation and accreditation by a certified evaluation and accreditation organization (a body certified by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to conduct such evaluation and accreditation) at least once every five years for the purpose of maintaining and improving the level of education and research commensurate with their respective goals. Beauty business graduate schools are type of professional graduate school. In the 2012 academic year, the institution conducted certified evaluation and accreditation by field of specialization for the Hollywood Graduate School of Beauty Business, reported the results to the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and released the results to the public. English, Chinese, and Korean translations of a summary of the results were widely distributed internationally.
There is a global trend toward higher education institutions receiving periodic third-party assessment for the purpose of maintaining and improving the level of education and research. In Japan, universities (including graduate schools), professional graduate schools, junior colleges and colleges of technology are required to undergo certified evaluation and accreditation on a regular basis in accordance with the School Education Act. While specialized training colleges in Japan must conduct self-assessments, their third-party evaluation remains a matter to be addressed in the future.
Postsecondary courses in specialized training colleges (professional training colleges) constitute the second largest destination for higher education among upper secondary school graduates after universities. Professional training colleges play a vital role in Japanese higher education as educational institutions that offer practical occupational training. Recent years have seen a growing emphasis on the importance of occupational training, and countries around the world, including in the West, are making efforts to reform vocational higher education. Third-party quality assurance (evaluation) of specialized training colleges has become indispensable in the reform of Japanese higher education.
Given this situation, the institution’s name and articles of incorporation were changed with the aim of expanding into the work of quality assurance and evaluation of education at specialized training colleges (especially professional post-secondary courses) in addition to the institution’s original work as a certified evaluation and accreditation organization for beauty business professional graduate schools.
We at QAPHE are determined to do our part as a quality assurance and evaluation organization to help maintain and increase the level of Japanese professional higher education and contribute to its distinctive and diverse development. As such, we look forward to your understanding and support.
October 2014
Akihiko Kawaguchi, Representative Director