ABSTRACT

During the past decade, the majority of the world's non-socialist, industrial states have faced large-scale student unrest. To all outward appearances, these disturbances often resemble each other so closely that one might be inclined to believe that their causes are also basically identical. The widely apparent solidarity among students was forged on the basis of protest against the Bomb, the Vietnam war and racial discrimination. Yet behind these clear-cut political demands lies a deep dissatisfaction with the educational situation, a dissatisfaction which has institutional causes that vary from country to country. Japanese universities have a different relationship to the country's employment system than, for example, do those in France or England. The problem of drop-outs from America's tightly structured colleges differs from that of West German students who break off studies which are relatively loosely structured.