The History of the "Academic Transcript"

2002/07/01

Published in "Juku" 2002, No. 235

It is a common habit for students of any era to feel joy or sorrow when looking at their report cards.
However, the format and nature of report cards have varied by period, and past report cards serve as important historical documents for understanding educational methodologies and student consciousness.
This time, let's examine the "Gakugyo Kinda-hyo" (Academic Diligence and Idleness Report), the report card of Keio University during the Meiji period.

The roots of the academic transcript at Keio University can be traced to the "Keio Gijuku Gakugyo Kinda-hyo" (Photo <1>), a list that compiled the attendance and academic performance of all Keio students, from the elementary to the university level. It was first published in the fourth year of the Meiji era (1871), immediately after Keio University moved from Shiba Shinsenza to the Mita Hilltop Square, and was initially printed monthly, and later three times a year. The year 1871 was not only the year of the move to Mita but also the year when the "Keio Gijuku Shachu no Yakusoku" (Pledge of the Keio Gijuku Shachu) was established as a rule within Keio and the curriculum was revamped. It is reasonable to assume that the publication of the "Gakugyo Kinda-hyo" was in response to this series of new developments.

A copy of the "Gakugyo Kinda-hyo" was distributed to every Keio student, and additional copies could be purchased for a set fee. In other words, academic performance was widely publicized at the time. Currently, Keio University generally notifies guarantors of academic results, but the public disclosure of academic performance was not uncommon in the Meiji period, and not just at Keio University. Some school guides from this era even included the report cards of current students as an appendix. Then, in the 13th year of Meiji (1880), Keio University was requested by the Ministry of Education of the time to exhibit the "Keio Gijuku Shachu no Yakusoku" and the "Keio Gijuku Kinda-hyo" at an exposition to be held in Melbourne, Australia (Photos <2>, <3>, <4>). While it is not certain whether these materials were actually exhibited, it is clear that they were considered for public display abroad as representative materials of our country's education. Perhaps academic performance at that time was not necessarily considered personal information as it is today, but was recognized as public information. Furthermore, Keio University in the Meiji period, true to its name, had the strong character of a private academy (shijuku), and there was likely an extremely open atmosphere among peers who ate and slept in the same dormitories, regarding each other's grades and rankings. The oldest "Gakugyo Kinda-hyo," published in April of the fourth year of Meiji (1871), contains many red ink annotations, presumably by a former owner. From this, we can infer that upperclassmen from the first to fourth grades taught the lowerclassmen from the fifth grade and below. This can be considered a valuable record as a practical example of Keio University's principle of "learning while teaching, teaching while learning."

Additionally, the format of the "Gakugyo Kinda-hyo" was upgraded over time: from April to October of the fourth year of Meiji (1871), it was a "woodblock print, temporarily bound with half-size hanshi paper"; in September of the fifth year of Meiji (1872), it became "letterpress, printed on a single sheet, double-sided"; and from September of the 16th year of Meiji (1883), it became a Western-style booklet. A total of 91 different editions have been confirmed, up to the one from April of the 31st year of Meiji (1898). In addition, the "Keio Gijuku Dai-shigyo Sekijun" (Keio University Grand Examination Ranking), a list of results from the biannual spring and autumn examinations (shigyo), also remains for three sessions from the fourth to fifth years of Meiji (1871–1872).

In 1990 (the second year of the Heisei era), coincidentally the centennial year of the college's establishment, the "Daigakubu Gakusei Kinda-hyo" (College Student Diligence and Idleness Report, hereafter "Gakusei Kinda-hyo") was discovered by staff at the Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies while editing the microfilm version of Fukuzawa-related documents.

Let's take a look at Photo <6>. This is the first page of the "Gakusei Kinda-hyo" for the law department from the first year the college was established. Current university transcripts use a four-tier grading system of A, B, C, and D for each subject, with C or higher being a passing grade. However, this "Gakusei Kinda-hyo" lists the exact exam scores for each subject. According to the college regulations of the time, the standard for a passing grade was "a total score of 70% or more of the maximum possible points across all subjects," and it stated that "those with scores of 40% or less in two subjects, or a score of 30% or less in one subject, shall fail." Compared to the current curriculum, the conditions for advancing to the next grade were more severe, and the judgment itself is thought to have been quite strict.

According to "Keio Gijuku Hyakunenshi," nine students enrolled in the law department, but only five of them were able to graduate. The graduation rate was similar for the department of political economy and the department of literature. Although there were cases where students had to abandon their studies due to illness or financial reasons, only about one in two enrolled students was able to graduate. Incidentally, Torajiro Kanbe, who had the top grades in the "Gakusei Kinda-hyo" shown in the photo, later served as the Dean of the Faculty of Law.

Now, for all the Keio students who have received their transcripts at the end of this academic year, I hope you will not just worry about the number of "A"s, but will hold your transcripts with a feeling of deep reflection on the year you have spent. And why not take a moment to think about how our Meiji-era predecessors, who knew each other's grades inside and out, later joined forces to break new ground in every field of modern Japan? Learning from the past... From there, you might just be able to see your own future.