The Graduate School of Governance Studies is located on Meiji University’s Surugadai Campus. This location and the range of available resources provide an ideal study environment for professionals in government and public administration.
Training Professionals in Politics, Policy and Public Administration
The three focus areas (Public Policy, International Development Policy, Community Planning and Management) of the Graduate School of Governance Studies aims at providing support to policy-making by government agencies and community residents through research and education in public policy studies. It produces professionals with specialized knowledge and global perspectives. The three focus areas are designed for those who have experience in government at the local level, in international cooperation or similar areas.
It includes elected leaders and representatives, public officials, NPO and NGO workers, and corporate employees, and is also for recent university graduates with an interest in these public policy fields who aspire to careers in public service. The English track program is primarily for international students, including those sponsored by their own governments, those granted the Human Resource Development Scholarship by Japanese Grant Aid (JDS) or MEXT scholarships, and long-term trainees under Japan’s official development assistance program.
Advanced Education and Research for Professional Practitioners
The term “Public Policy” refers to the creation of policies by gathering data and analyzing it for determining the status of policy issues both domestically and internationally. In policy formulation and deployment, experts take a fresh look at conventional policy and decision-making processes to see how they can be improved, often incorporating, citizen's interests. Policy-makers conduct simulations to test the feasibility of policy goals, check negative effects through experimental projects, identifying their causes, and make adjustments accordingly. Finally, whether at an end point or on an ongoing basis, they observe the outcomes and evaluate the policy. The curriculum of the Graduate School of Governance Studies is organized along the same line as such steps of policy making and implementation processes. It provides a streamlined curriculum for the students to build the skills of creating, implementing, and assessing policy. Our courses are grouped into four core fields: Basic subject - Policy, administration, management (Field A); Basic subject - Economic, finance, development (Field B); Applied Policy Study (Field C), in which students conduct research through case studies; and Practical Seminars (Field D), including guidance on writing research papers and improving presentation skills. The Graduate School of Governance Studies strives for providing professional education with focus on practical knowledge and technical expertise, as well as reshaping the academic discipline of public policy studies into a holistic science that integrates the existing fields of politic public administration, economics, public finance, and administrative law.
Qualities of Our Graduates
Our Professional Master's degree program aims at preparing professional practitioners and researchers with an advanced level of knowledge in governance and public policy. In order to obtain the degree, students must possess (1) a high level of specialized knowledge of disciplines in various fields of governance and policy studies, and (2) the ability to apply that knowledge to solving real problems.
Our ultimate goal is to produce graduates who have a good command of policy-making and implementation skills necessary for resolving the complex problems in this diversified and borderless society.