Results for Certified Evaluation and Accreditation
for Professional Graduate Public Policy School

Meiji University Professional Graduate School
Graduate School of Governance Studies
Governance Studies Program

Basic Information of the Institution
Ownership: Private

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Accreditation Status
Year of the Review: 2021
Accreditation Status: accredited （Accreditation Period: April.1.2022– March.31.2027）

Meiji University Professional Graduate School
Graduate School of Governance Studies, Governance Studies Program

Certified Evaluation and Accreditation Resultsfor Meiji University Professional Graduate School
Graduate School of Governance Studies, Governance Studies Program

The Meiji University Professional Graduate School, Graduate School of GovernanceStudies, Governance Studies Program has as its unique purpose “through research andeducation in public policy studies to train professionals with advanced expertise andpolicy formulation ability, social coordination and problem-solving skills, and a globalperspective.” The Program has the following human resources development goal: “Tohelp elected officials such as local government heads and assembly members involved
in local politics and administration, public servants, citizens who constitute civil society,businesspersons, employees of NPOs and NGOs, professionals contributing to society
in a variety of specialized fields, individuals aspiring for a career in the field of public
policy, and those who just finished undergraduate programs and aspire to become
public servants acquire advanced expertise and policy formulation ability, social
coordination and problem-solving skills, and a global perspective.” The Program has
faculty members with extensive practical experience that conduct education andresearch to meet the needs of students aspiring for a variety of careers in the field of
public policy. In order to recruit students who match the human resources development
goal above, the Program distributes a Graduate School Guidebook to various groups
and departments involved in human resources development in the field of public policy,
such as assembly secretariats and HR managers working at local governments in Tokyoand its vicinity, actively disseminating the program’s educational features to those
involved in public policy and promoting recognition of the professional graduate public
policy school. This is a distinctive endeavor.
The Program has the Japanese-track Course primarily intended for Japanese
students in which classes are held in Japanese and the English-track Course primarily
intended for international students in which classes are held in English, through which
it works to train diverse, globally-competitive individuals. In accordance with its
human resources development goal, the Japanese-track Course accepts students suchas elected officials, public servants, nonprofit organization staff, and others who areinvolved in public policy, offering a curriculum that can meet the goals and needs ofindividual students. The English-track Course primarily accepts individuals withpractical experience in administration and similar tasks in Asian countries. The course
has assistant lecturers who assist students in searching for books and articles necessary1

Meiji University Professional Graduate School
Graduate School of Governance Studies, Governance Studies Programfor research paper preparation and provide advice on course registration- and learningrelated issues. In addition, the course holds a training camp attended by all Englishtrack Course students, in which participants can receive assistance and advice regarding
life in Japan and course registration and which contributes to networking amonginternational students. This is a commendable endeavor. Furthermore, the Program hashired numerous experienced practitioner faculty members and has academic faculty
members with practical experience too, thereby developing a faculty capable ofappropriately conducting education that bridges theory and practice in the field of
public policy. This is a distinctive feature.
Thus, the Program is making efforts to train individuals who can play an activerole in various areas of public policy. However, the following issues were identified.
The Program radically revised its curriculum in 2018, categorizing subjects into
basic subjects (Fields A and B) and applied subjects (Fields C and D) to form a stepby-step curriculum, as well as establishing the Japanese Course and English Course.
However, as the Japanese-track Course and English-track Course are intended for
different types of students, the Program has made many revisions to the curriculum tomeet student needs, which has resulted in discrepancies between the subject
arrangements of the two courses. Therefore, the Program should review the course
structures in accordance with actual circumstances. The curriculum of the Japanesetrack Course has an unbalanced structure: the basic subject fields include many
administration- and policy-related subjects and finance-related subjects, while politicalscience subjects (especially philosophy-related subjects) and empirical andmathematical subjects are lacking. Therefore, the Program should create a curriculumthat is more appropriate for the field of public policy. Moreover, the Japanese Course
allows students to register for up to 36 credits in a year. As the completion requirements
state that students must earn 40 or more credits and pass the research paper examination,
students are theoretically able to complete the course by taking only Research DesignSeminar and Research Paper Preparation Seminar in their second year. The Program
should revise the system to encourage students to create a well-balanced schedule eachyear. In terms of assessment of academic achievement, the rules state that an S grade
should be given to around 20% of the participants in subjects with 10 or more students.
However, there are subjects where more than 20% of the participants are given an Sgrade, all participants are given an S grade, or most participants are given an A grade.
Therefore, the Program should examine the validity of the criteria and methods ofassessment of academic achievement and ensure compliance with the rules it has set.
Although the Program has formed the Collaboration Council for Educational2

Meiji University Professional Graduate School
Graduate School of Governance Studies, Governance Studies Program

Program to gather opinions from outside parties for curriculum improvement, thecouncil does not include members from the field of international cooperation. Given
that the Program offers the English-track Course, the council’s structure should bechanged so that opinions regarding public policy, governance, and international student
education in Asia can be gained from a practical public policy standpoint.
As for faculty, the Program hires teaching staff with extensive practicalexperience and research achievements as non-tenured specially appointed professors.
The tenures of these specially appointed professors are scheduled to expire in 2023 andlater. Therefore, the Program is expected to formulate and implement a medium- tolong-term faculty plan to ensure that an appropriate faculty is maintained withconsideration given to diversity, age composition, and gender balance. The Program
has developed a plan to reduce the number of classes taught by full-time teaching staff
in an effort to reduce their teaching hours. However, as each full-time teaching staff
member is still responsible for a large number of classes, the Program should continue
engaging with the issue of teaching load and making fundamental improvements toensure that faculty members have enough time for research and class preparation.
Regarding information disclosure, career-related information, student body size, andother data is provided on the university’s website. Therefore, the graduate school should
also disclose such information on its website in order to always keep the Program’s
stakeholders updated.
Of the issues described above, those concerning rigorous assessment of academic
achievement, ensuring faculty diversity, and information disclosure were raised in theCertified Evaluation and Accreditation for Professional Graduate Public Policy School
conducted by our association in 2016. Therefore, the Program needs to formulate a plan
through self-study and make organizational efforts to improve the situation. The JUAA
hopes the Program works on improving its activities aimed at training public policy
human resources as stated in the Program’s goal on the basis of consistent checks andreviews and outside opinions, as well as sharing the achievements of such activities
with the public, thereby demonstrating the meaningfulness of educating highly skilled
professionals in the field of public policy.

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