Results for Certified Evaluation and Accreditation for Professional Graduate Public Policy School School of Government, Kyoto University
While Faculty of Public Policy Education, School of Government, Kyoto University focuses on "Defining career plans based on the needs of the students and society," "Features that are special compared to other universities' professional graduate schools," and "relationship with other educational and research structure within the University," based on its founding philosophy, it also states in the Medium-Term Objectives that its basic principle is "To promote the cultivation of deep academic knowledge and outstanding skills backed by diverse academic research, and train highly specialized professionals who can contribute to society, in a practical manner." In light of this, the Faculty has developed a systematic curriculum and course system to foster specialist skills, with cluster subjects ranging from basic subjects for acquiring general knowledge to specialized basic subjects that share basic knowledge as public policy experts. The Faculty strives to provide intensive academic support for each student by assigning advising teachers concerning subjects and career paths, etc. In addition, students are voluntarily involved in writing and editing the faculty journal, "Public Space,", and student organizations are also active in the "Earthquake Recovery Research Group" and "Policy Proposal Seminar," etc. It is commendable that the Faculty actively supports these students' voluntary activities. As a result of this, many graduates, regardless of whether they are public servants or from private companies, find employment in the public policy field. The Faculty is meeting the social demands for training highly specialized professionals engaged in public affairs. On the other hand, regarding the management of the enrollment capacity, although the enrollment number is managed appropriately, it is necessary to analyze the cause for the trend behind the declining number of applicants in the general entrance examination and consider comprehensive measures to increase applicants. In this regard, the Faculty has established a foreign student selection framework, and are making efforts to foster highly specialized professionals who can play an active role both domestically and internationally. However, since its establishment, the Faculty has set a goal of providing education for foreign students that does not make any special distinctions from Japanese students based on the premise that they are proficient in Japanese language. It is hoped that this concept will be made more clearly known to the general public. Moreover, although improvements were made in the wording of the syllabus that were identified in the results of the previous "Certified Evaluation and Accreditation for Professional Graduate Public Policy School," details that were mentioned are still found to be unpolished among subjects. Even though there are university-wide restrictions on how the syllabus is described and how adjunct faculty members and subjects offered by other departments are handled, in the light of the trend for digitizing syllabuses and such, and the benefits to students, further enhancement of the syllabus description is desirable. To make improvements such as the above, the "FD Committee" strives to improve the assessment of academic achievement and make improvements based on the opinions and items pointed out by the "Curriculum Review Committee" established for external assessment and comprised of government (OB), private companies, and members of the press. However, since the opinions and items pointed out by the Committee are basically examined by the "Academic Affairs Committee" and the "FD Committee" based on the judgment of individual faculty members, systematic efforts to respond as an organization may not necessarily be always sufficient. Further efforts to help reform and improve the Faculty by establishing a system, including the enhancement of the "FD Committee" are expected.