During the Autumn term 2007 at ICU, I handled the GS class on Special Studies in Public Administration III, which received a funding from the JDS Program. The focus of my course is on the New Public Management (NPM) paradigm and its implementation in Asia and Africa regions. The class consists of 11 graduate students, who have majors in Public Administration, Public Economics and Peace Studies. Most of my students are JDS fellows and Rotary scholars. They come from several countries in Asia such as China, Japan, Mongolia, Philippines, Vietnam and African countries of Kenya and Cote d'Ivoire.

Though the term at ICU is too short, my class has achieved its own learning goals. Firstly, the evolution of NPM paradigm was examined thoroughly, the present crisis of NPM as well as post-NPM reforms were discussed through a series of lectures, active class discussions and participations by students. Secondly, the students were given an opportunity to develop their analytical and critical thinking skills through critiquing activities. They were able to criticize academically the most recent scholarly publications on privatization and governance reforms and produced good critique papers. This exercise helped them develop and hone their analytical, critical and writing skills on several countries' privatization events. Specifically, we discussed and examined various privatization and regulatory reforms in China, Japan, Philippines, Mongolia, Vietnam, and African countries. Learning is a two-way process; indeed, I have acquired new knowledge from my students' reports on their own country's privatization events.

Thirdly, students were able to produce a high quality research project in a very limited time. In their group research projects, they developed teamwork and cooperation in assigned topics. Most importantly, in their group research, they managed to apply theoretical concepts, conduct literature review, secure needed data from the respective agencies and to process those data into statistical analyses, and finally they interpreted and analyzed their findings in a scholarly manner. This exercise is useful either in preparation for writing their own master's thesis or for their own professional career being a practitioner/researcher. Their research projects include the following:

1. Japan Railway Privatization
2. Privatization and Performance of the Banking Sector in a Short run: A Case Study of the Agricultural Bank of Mongolia
3. Effects of Privatization and Structural Reforms on the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Company.

My students' performance was remarkable since they have managed to produce those research outputs in less than a month. Besides, those papers can even be presented in a seminar within ICU or other external conferences.

Lastly, my class sponsored the two open lectures at ICU by other scholars, who are experts in their areas. The first lecture was conducted on October 30, 2007 on the "Privatization and New Public Management in Japan" by Dr Osamu Koike, a professor of Public Policy and Administration of the International Graduate School of Social Sciences at Yokohama National University. He discussed Japan's privatization initiatives on Japan Post, decentralization and competition among local governments and consolidation of municipalities. Moreover, he discussed the second generation of reforms on modernizing government (eg., "e-Gov"). The second lecture was conducted by Dr. Hiromi Kabashima on November 8, 2007 on the topic of "New Regionalism in Asia Pacific". Dr. Kabashima is an associate professor in International Relations in the Department of International Business Law at Yokohama National University. She discussed the characteristics of and factors for new regionalism and the uniqueness of Asian regionalism.

These two open lectures were made possible through the funding from JDS Program and attended mostly by JDS fellows and exchange students. I believe that these lectures benefited my students as added learning to their academic endeavor at ICU. Finally, I will make this opportunity to thank the JDS Program for the financial support extended to my visiting term to contribute to ICU's education. To all academic staff and students, thank you for a memorable Autumn term at ICU and the new learning experience I have acquired during my short stay.

Emilyn Cabanda, Visiting Professor-IS, ICU, Mitaka, Tokyo