Teaching Policy Management | Motohiro Tsuchiya, Dean of the Faculty of Policy Management
November 26, 2019
One of the first things I had to do as dean was to take charge of a course called "Policy Management." The deans before me have also interpreted Policy Management in their own ways and taught the course.
Fortunately, this course can be co-taught by multiple instructors. Since the course must be taught in English during the fall semester, I decided to have it co-taught by the fluent English speakers Koichiro Tanaka and Mika Kunieda . Mr. Tanaka specializes in energy and the Middle East and has also worked on a United Nations mission. Ms. Kunieda's field is Africa, and as a public health expert, she also has extensive experience with international organizations.
In the first class, as an introduction, the three of us explained the background of the establishment of the Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC), the needs that led to the demand for Policy Management, and what kind of lectures we would be developing.
From the second class onward, we asked faculty members fluent in English to explain "the most basic concepts you need to know first" in political science, law, economics, business administration, and fieldwork—which is important at SFC, where going out into the field is encouraged. Political science was taught by Mr. Tanaka; law by Naoyuki Agawa (currently a professor at Doshisha University), with the help of a former faculty member; economics by Tatsuma Wada ; business administration by Masahiro Kotosaka ; and fieldwork by Vu Le Thao Chi . We adopted a format where they would first spend about 60 minutes explaining the most basic concepts, after which the three instructors and the students in the course would bombard them with questions.
Policy Management can be interpreted in various ways. For now, I believe that Policy Management exists where political science, law, economics, and business administration are integrated and transcended, serving as an important base. This is because I thought that if we temporarily consider policy in a narrow sense as something created by the government (though it should originally be viewed in a broader sense), it is essential to know the fundamental concepts in these four fields as a minimum requirement.
After acquiring these basic concepts, when actually considering policy issues, not only fieldwork but also foreign languages, artificial languages (computer), and data science naturally become necessary. We have always provided advanced education in foreign languages. Thanks to the neighboring Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, there are also many classes at the Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC) taught by experts in artificial languages and data science. This is our greatest advantage, one not found in similar faculties at other universities.
However, that alone is of course not enough. Knowledge, grounding, culture, and ideas that form the backbone of a policymaker, such as philosophy, history, and sociology, are also necessary. With advice from Ikumi Waragai , Tomoki Kamo , Toshihiro Nakayama , Masatoshi Tamamura , and Hajime Miyagaki , I began to wonder if these could be organized as "Jinkan-gaku" (the study of human relations). Yukichi Fukuzawa saw "jinkan kosai" (human relations) as the ultimate purpose of scholarship. Without it, Policy Management at Keio University cannot exist. Although this "Jinkan-gaku" could not be incorporated into this semester's course, I definitely want to include it from next time.
There was also criticism that since SFC has always challenged new things, we should not bring up old, existing disciplines like "-ology" or "-ics." That may be true. Nevertheless, I want to bring them up intentionally. This is because many of the people creating policy in the field today have learned these older disciplines to get their jobs. If our graduates cannot communicate with them, graduates of the Faculty of Policy Management cannot be involved in the practice of policy. Even if we try to build Policy Management on top of existing disciplines, without mutual understanding with others, we cannot educate, research, or practice policy, and we will be unable to explain what Policy Management even is.
In the final report for the class, I had students describe what policy issues they want to tackle before they graduate and what approach they intend to take. I was pleased to see that in many of the 34 students' reports, they made an effort to reflect the ideas they had gained through the course.
Next year will be the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Faculty of Policy Management. When it comes to teaching something, especially at a university, there is no such thing as "this is enough." As long as the subject of Policy Management is society, the discipline must also change as society changes.
"Experiments" are permitted at SFC. As a researcher of political science, I would never want to use a frightening term like "social experiment." This is because society is irreplaceable and should not be subjected to experiments. A social experiment is not something you can just redo if it fails. When attempting something, it must be done cautiously after sufficient consideration, with a belief in its success. The practice of education is the same.
"Policy Management" is a course offered every semester. I want to continue changing this course to pass on the baton that has been evolving for 30 years.