Asian schools provide insight into emerging markets

Policymakers globally are looking at Asia, drawn by enticing markets such as China and India

 

And the student community, keen to gain experience on the continent, are flocking to institutions like the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Tokyo, and the Jindal School of Government and Public Policy near New Delhi, which all run Master of Public Policy (MPP) courses.

 

“Europe represents the past, America, the present, [and] Asia, the future,” says Kishore Mahbubani, Dean at the Lee Kuan Yew School.

 

“If you’re a young person, do you want to place bets on the past or the future?”

 

Asian policy schools remain fledglings compared to their US peers.

 

The Harvard Kennedy School of Government was the template for the Lee Kuan Yew School when it was set-up in 2004. Like their western counterparts, Asian MPP courses aim to equip people to improve governance.

 

Students are taught basic economics, politics and quantitative skills, before taking elective courses on everything from trade to security.

 

The Lee Kuan Yew School, Asia’s best-known option, now has three postgraduate courses for those with diverse professional experience.

 

Mahbubani says 60-70 per cent of those admitted are offered financial aid to ensure that students come from varied backgrounds. 

 

The Global Public Policy Network — a partnership that includes Columbia University in New York, the London School of Economics, the Lee Kuan Yew School and the University of Tokyo — is crucial for Asian programmes eager to offer students the brand of a known western university alongside strong emerging market insights.

 

As well as offering exchange programmes and joint degrees, the network’s schools collaborate on cross-border events and research.

 

For Hideaki Shiroyama, Dean at the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Tokyo, the system lets newer institutions compete. 

 

“The Kennedy School is a long-standing model but what we actually did is set-up an alternative network model.”

 

Yet, just as public policy programmes struggle to compete with established MBA schools — which host slick recruitment drives and career counselling — newer policy schools in Asia face criticism from education analysts, who say those investing in postgraduate education expect a great job on graduation.

 

“Even if you have a global applicant pool, your placement is local,” says Karan Khemka, Partner at education consultancy Parthenon-EY, explaining that many international students eager to study in China and India are reluctant to work in emerging markets in the long term.

 

But for those looking beyond a pay cheque, Asian schools promise a different perspective on policy. 

 

In India, academics at the Jindal School argue that professors with experience in emerging markets offer a more useful perspective on challenges such as poverty and agriculture, which academics in Singapore and Boston may struggle with.

 

“If you look at the Lee Kuan Yew School, you would think public policy is an extension of the state — here we are democracy-driven,” says Vice-Dean Shiv Visvanathan.

 

“It gets you a different kind of student — not one searching for a World Bank job but someone who is looking for the meaning of India.”

 

Students also have practical reasons for enrolling in Asian policy schools, an obvious one being lower costs.

 

Tuition is an annual ¥535,800 (about Dh16,628) for the international MPP in Tokyo, on top of an admissions fee of ¥282,000, while the same programme at the Lee Kuan Yew School is S$34,500 (about Dh89,000) after state subsidies.

 

— Financial Times