Message from the Dean

MORI Hiroyuki
Dean
Graduate School of Policy Science

Ritsumeikan University’s Graduate School of Policy Science (GSPS) was established in 1997 with a view to develop students’ essential research skills and practical competence to correctly understand the policy issues that we face in today’s society and to work out for optimal solutions.

Policy science is a discipline that explores solutions to various policy issues that affect us while pursuing the innovation of social and natural sciences. Through policy science study, the GSPS aims to train both new types of academic researchers with practical skills and competent policy practitioners.

Each of the policy issues has various social and natural aspects. In order to understand and promote solutions to these issues, research achievements in a wide range of academic fields such as political science, public administration, law, economics, business administration, urban planning and environmental engineering must be served for studies in policy science. Policy science has a characteristic of being an integrated science, which requires interdisciplinary research, encompassing many different academic disciplines. In this increasingly complex world, the importance of the study in these fields are growing. With this comprehensive nature, you will widen and deepen each of the specialized fields that will ultimately contribute to the development of the existing academic field itself.

As a research institution to study the solutions to policy issues, the GSPS places special emphasis on the interaction with real society. To be specific, the GSPS has research sites called “Regional Co-Creation Studies” in local government and social institutions in several regions where graduate students are given opportunities to observe actual policy scenes. We are going to register the achievements of the field research in our “Policy Base” database and make such data globally available. In this way, graduate students of the GSPS can contribute to the enhancement of this database through your research activities.

The GSPS also offers a project-style joint research program, which was conceived in consideration of the integrated nature of policy science. This program is called “Research Project” in the Master’s Program and “Research Seminar” in the Doctoral Program. Under these programs, several faculty members conduct research activities jointly with graduate students and offer research guidance to you.

Another feature of our graduate school is its internationality. Many international students from around the world are studying at the GSPS. The GSPS offers programs in both English and Japanese, and through the classes, events, etc. students are actively engaged in international exchanges. It also provides socio-cultural diverse students valuable opportunities to explore new fields of study by broadening each other’s horizons.

By carrying out policy science research and making the most of these opportunities unique to the GSPS, we hope to train high-caliber personnel capable of making and conducting optimal solutions to all social issues.