Results for Certified Evaluation and Accreditation forProfessional Graduate Public Policy School

School of International and Public Policy,
Hitotsubashi University

Basic Information of the Institution
Ownership: National

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Accreditation Status
Year of the Review: 2023
Accreditation Status: accredited （Accreditation Period: April 1, 2024 – March 31, 2029）

School of International and Public Policy, Hitotsubashi University

Certified Evaluation and Accreditation Results
for the School of International and Public Policy,
Hitotsubashi University

The inherent goals of the School of International and Public Policy, Hitotsubashi
University (hereafter “School”), are “to cultivate professionals who have acquired
analytical skills in either law, international relations, or economics, while adopting
perspectives from adjacent fields to tackle real-world issues in a practical manner anddisseminating policies throughout Japan and the world.” To achieve these goals theSchool has established four basic principles: (1) Professional education based on thefoundation of state-of-the-art research (2) Fostering leadership with multiple viewpoints
through cross-cutting analysis; (3) Emphasis on multi-faceted and practical policy
analysis; and (4) Fostering leaders that will play an active role in the world and build a
research center in the Asia-Pacific region. The School emphasizes not only connecting
academic knowledge and analytical skills in politics, economics, and law to anunderstanding of real-world policymaking, but also deepening cross-disciplinary insights
in these fields.
With respect to the curriculum, the School offers the following four programs:
Public Law, Global Governance, Public Economics, and Asian Public Policy, andprovides course contents tailored to the characteristics of each program. Individualsubjects are divided into the two major categories of Academic Training and ProfessionalTraining. Academic Training is designed to enhance students’ theoretical expertise andability to think and analyze based on academic research, and consists of Basic Subjects,
Core Subjects, Applied Subjects, and Case Studies organized in a buildup approach.
Professional Training aims to cultivate policy-making skills in the real world throughInternships, Workshops, , Consulting Projects and other courses. In this way, the School
has designed a unique curriculum that meets the wide ranging needs of students who havean awareness and interest in diverse issues, while providing them with opportunities totake courses step-by-step in a systematic way.
Most notably, the Consulting Projects in the Public Economics Program is anexcellent course backed by case studies and field studies, forming a bridge between theory
and practice for students to apply theories and knowledge learned in class to practicalsituations. As each student works individually on a theme of interest, about 15 “consultingreports”, the final product of the course, are submitted by students to their clients eachyear. Despite the large number of projects ongoing simultaneously, faculty members1

School of International and Public Policy, Hitotsubashi University

provide generous support to each student, and the reports contribute to the clients’businesses in terms of analytical approaches and processes used in the projects.
Furthermore, some students have made use of field experiences and findings in theseprojects for their master's theses and other publications, or have initiated new academic
courses in collaboration with local governments that were former project clients. Givensuch developments, this course is highly commendable as one of the School’s strengths.
The Asian Public Policy Program and the Foreign Service Sub-Program, forwhich all courses are offered in English for students to obtain a master's degree, are also
notable as unique curricula efforts. The School is committed to advancing these programs
and has made consistent efforts through faculty tutorials and collaboration. In addition,
the School has continuously developed good relationships with internationalorganizations, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Asian Development
Bank (ADB), as well as the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and otherinstitutions, thereby successfully recruiting outstanding students from government
economic agencies, central banks, and other organizations in Asian countries. This is acommendable effort.
As a way of improving its education, every semester the School holds a meetingfor faculty members and students to exchange views about each program and seeks toactively incorporate the students’ opinions on improvements. This is a distinctiveinitiative. In some cases, opinions and requests expressed at these meetings arerecognized as specific issues to be addressed, which indicates that the meetings arefunctioning well as a mechanism making use of students' opinions to facilitate educational
improvements.
Another unique feature is the detailed support given to individual students. For
example, the School combines group guidance and mentoring systems in its researchguidance, offers scholarships and a grant system to support practical policy research, andprovides guidance in the Consulting Projects. As for the Asian Public Policy Program, theSchool uses part of the indirect costs from external funds to deploy staff members with awealth of experience in working with international students and a good command ofEnglish, thereby offering support and advice for their personal and school lives. This is acommendable effort providing international students with a learning environment inwhich they can feel at ease.
Although it is inextricably linked to the positive characteristics of the School,
there is an issue involving the degree to which the School pursues integrity and unity,
while operating the four distinctive programs adapted to the needs of students who havean awareness and interest in diverse matters, and valuing the unique features of the2School of International and Public Policy, Hitotsubashi University

individual programs. Going forward, the School is expected to examine this issue.
The School continues to demonstrate creativity and ingenuity in providing its
education as described above, supported largely by the daily efforts of its full-time faculty
members. Under these circumstances, the School, as it is fully aware, should consider
how to maintain the quality of the faculty organization by, for example, finding ways ofsharing insights across the organization to manage individual projects and the networks
with external entities owned by individual faculty members. It should also consider how
to recruit practitioner faculty members with advanced academic backgrounds and richpractical experiences.
Going forward, the School should work to address these issues to further assure
and improve the quality of its education and enhance its strengths and features.

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