Certified Evaluation and Accreditation Results forProfessional Graduate Business School

Chuo University
Chuo Graduate School of Strategic Management
Strategic Management Course

Basic Information of the Institution
Ownership: Private

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Accreditation Status
Year of the Review: 2017
Accreditation Status: accredited （Accreditation Period: April.01.2018 – March.31.2023）

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Certified Evaluation and Accreditation Results
for the Strategic Management Course,
Chuo Graduate School of Strategic Management, Chuo University
The Strategic Management Course (hereafter, SMC) in the Chuo Graduate School ofStrategic Management, Chuo University, specifies the uniform objective of “fostering deep
academic knowledge and excellent abilities as highly trained professionals by providing
education and research focusing on theory and practice based on academic studies.” Thisobjective is well suited to the purpose of the professional degree program and distinctively
focuses on leadership development.
The distinguishing feature of SMC’s curriculum is its focus on management
strategies. The curriculum itself comprises the five areas of “strategies,” “marketing,”“human resource management,” “finance,” and “corporate legal affairs,” and organicallyincorporates these areas to systemize its courses ranging from basic to advanced levels.
Above all, the “corporate legal affairs” area offers well-developed courses, taught not onlyby the SMC faculty but also provided in cooperation with Chuo Law School, Chuo
University.
In addition, SMC offers outstanding academic programs that meet the needs ofmany students, with course models designed according to the type of human resources andover one hundred lecture courses introduced. Moreover, in the past SMC has initiatedunique approaches to objectively measure its students’ learning outcomes by conducting
an “MBA assessment” at the time of enrollment and program completion to visually
understand the students’ strategic decision-making abilities and create opportunities torecognize the challenges of developing their abilities. (This initiative ended in FY2016.)
Furthermore, to disseminate these distinctive educational activities, SMC publishes the“Chuo Business School Review,” compiling the education and research writings ofacademic staff members, students, and graduates, and distributes the publication not only
on campus but also to graduates, other universities, and open class participants.
In these many ways, in pursuit of several distinctive educational activities overthe past ten years, SMC has been socially recognized with its level of student satisfaction
also considered high. However, while SMC aims to improve student enrollment as one of
the short-term goals in the “Chuo Business School (CBS) Future Vision” formulated inFY2015, the enrollment quota has not been fulfilled since that year. In addition, thesituation seriously deteriorated in FY2017 with student enrollment remaining at 49. (Theratio of student enrollment to the student enrollment cap (80) was 0.9 in FY2016 and 0.61
in FY2017.)
To address the problem of insufficient enrollment, SMC utilizes websites andsocial networking services to activate its public relations activities. In addition, SMC bases
its student recruitment activities on entrance examination explanatory meetings, holding
these meetings once a week before the application process begins while expanding its
efforts to attract more female applicants. To increase the number of students admitted byrecommendation from businesses, SMC utilizes program coordinators specializing incorporate public relations and marketing, and organizes events based on these activities
results, for example, company visits, trial lessons, and on-site briefings by full-timeacademic/administrative staff members. As for SMC’s admission decision process, all theinterviewers gather after completing the interview tests to share the status of the individualapplicants.
Based on the progress of the CBS Future Vision, SMC established the CBS
Medium- to Long-Term Strategy Review Committee consisting of relatively young
academic staff members and formulated the “CBS NExT 10” action plan in September
2017. “CBS NExT 10” integrates SMC’s five key areas as a core to establish the practicefocused “Field Learning” course conducted in cooperation with businesses, in addition tocreating program-based curricula to train professionals in different fields beyond theframework of these five areas, such as the “Medical and Healthcare Program,” “GlobalManagement Program,” and “Venture Business/New Enterprise Development Program,”3with these new programs promoting the development of “Change Leaders.” It iscommendable that young academic staff members took the initiative as future leaders informulating “CBS NExT 10,” and these action plans are expected to produce positive
results in the coming years.
However, there are some concerns over “CBS NExT 10.” First, this action plan
promotes the development of “Change Leaders” as SMC’s objective. The original aim of
SMC was to cultivate strategic management leaders, but the connection between “ChangeLeaders” and strategic management leaders is unclear. SMC should clarify why different
words are used if both refer to the same leaders, or explain the difference if different
leaders are meant. This issue was remarked upon in JUAA’s suggestions for improvement,
stating “there are inconsistencies in the objectives specified in the graduate school code of
Chuo University’s Professional Graduate Schools, course guidelines, and “CBS NExT 10”
requiring the definition of a uniform objective.” Since SMC’s education for training
strategic management leaders is socially recognized and well received, SMC needs toexplicitly define these two visions for human resource development, while reviewing andspecifying its objective once again with a focus on connecting its accumulated educational
resources to the objective of developing strategic management leaders.
“Field Learning” presents a very interesting educational method, but the on-site
inspection revealed that the program has yet to be established in terms of businesscooperation and educational content. With this attractive approach likely to produce
positive educational results, the “Field Learning” program is expected to be properlyimplemented.
In addition, the “Global Management Program,” established as a program-based
course, introduces subjects related to global management, including the “Theory of Global
Management Strategy” and “Cross-Cultural Understanding and Business in Asia.” To
promote this program, however, SMC should focus more on global management education.
Currently, SMC lacks full-time foreign faculty members, with all-English global subjects
taught only by visiting scholars from foreign universities during their stay. Moreover, theratio of international students to student enrollment is also low. The review by JUAA
referred to this issue as an area of improvement, commenting that “to cultivate true global
leaders, SMC should introduce subjects that not only offer lectures taught by instructors
with international experience but also provide students with opportunities to actuallyexperience different cultures and cross-cultural communication by themselves.”
The Strategic Management Course has no items identified as areas of serious
concern in this Certified Evaluation and Accreditation in accordance with the Professional
Graduate Business School Standards. However, there are many suggestions forimprovement. The ongoing insufficient quota fulfillment and the declining number ofenrolled students are especially serious and urgent challenges affecting SMC’ssustainability. While SMC has formulated “CBS NExT 10” to address these challenges,
there are also concerns over feasibility of this action plan. Based on the latest Certified
Evaluation and Accreditation results, SMC is expected to take steady and immediate step
towards implementing “CBS NExT 10” to maintain its sustainability.