The New Waseda Business School in 2007
Introducing the Master of Business Program (Professional Degree Course) at the Waseda University Graduate School of Commerce

In April 2007, the independent MBA courses of Business Administration (Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies) and Commercial Science (Graduate School of Commerce) will be combined to form a professional MBA program in business management at the Graduate School of Commerce (hereafter, WBS for Waseda Business School).
This is a brief summary of the philosophy, vision, and curriculum for this new course, as well as background to the integration of the two MBA courses.

Figure 1 : MBA Program offered at Waseda University

Background

To accommodate the globalization of business activities in recent years, business education has also rapidly become globalized. Within this trend, Business Schools (hereafter, BS) in Europe with their traditions and achievements have managed to further increase their international influence. In Asia, where MBA education has a relatively short history, it is more important to focus on specialization and diversification. Leading BS like Harvard are interested in working with successful Asian BS in order to build a network in line with globalization in the 21st Century.

Currently, there are four independent MBA programs at Waseda (Figure 1). This kind of small-scale and highly concentrated "boutique-type MBA" program has done a phenomenal job to stimulate the heretofore low-demand MBA market in Japan compared to USA and other countries. Counted as one of the three professional graduate schools, along with schools of law and medicine, BS with their social value and functionality are becoming increasingly popular today among the Japanese. MBA programs in Japan have entered a major transitional period.

The newly integrated WBS, with its extensive structure and financial efficiency, is intended to be not only a leading business school in Japan but also a revolutionary step toward becoming a leading world-class Asian business school.

Purpose and Mission

In order to cultivate individuals with high morality, professional knowledge, and adaptability, education at WBS shall focus on the following four aspects:

1. Professional and applied education in business
2. Professional knowledge on various business-related fields
3. Professional recurrent education in business management
4. Adaptation skills for a global business environment

WBS aims to train and produce the following kinds of specialists with international competence:

1. Executive candidates in leading Japanese firms, strategic staff members, and project managers of new enterprises
2. Venture business founders, successor candidates of middle-scale enterprises
3. Specialists combining technology with business management

The WBS vision encompasses keywords required by excellent companies today, such as "adaptation", "responsibility", "self-discipline" and "entrepreneurship".

Curriculum Highlights

Please refer to Figure 2 for the structure and curriculum contents of WBS.

Besides an intensive two-year day program, WBS offers night courses as well as one-year course to allow flexible learning catered to meet the demands of busy professionals. Diversified and dynamic lectures allow students from different backgrounds to learn according to their needs.

Participants will attend seminars emphasizing problem-solving skills and critical thinking, while engaging themselves in specific study through project research culminating in the MBA dissertation.

Having spent two years preparing for the establishment of the new integrated business program, Dean Masataka Ota of the Graduate School of Commerce commented as follows, “We have set up the infrastructure for achieving global competence in MBA education by combining the new three MBA courses in the GSC.” As the other key catalyst for WBS, Dean Yoshimasa Nishimura of the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies shared his vision with us: “I am convinced that the new Waseda Business School will be a great impact to Japanese higher education in the 21st century, being a challenge in itself providing the best business education and research at Waseda University.”

While attending to the demand for quality MBA education in Japan, the new WBS intends to become a professional business program meeting global standards. There is much expectation for the Waseda Business School to gain international recognition in the near future.

Figure 2 : Business Major of MBA Program of Graduate School of Commerce

Please refer to the following URLs for further information.
[URL]
http://www.waseda.jp/gradcom/
http://www.wiaps.waseda.ac.jp/