The Department of Development Policy basically has a mission to train international students including Japanese through the study and research based on the discipline in Economics. We have both Master course and PhD course here. Mainly, many subjects in our department are related to Development Economics, but all students have to take some "core classes" such as Development Macroeconomics, Development Microeconomics and Econometrics during the first grade year. These classes are fundamental knowledge and technique for all students to complete their thesis. Students can take many Applied Economics subjects depending on their interests while they study core classes. Also, we're supporting all students with multi-supervisor system until they complete the thesis. Students would be able to get useful advice for their research from some of supervisors whenever they want. In addition to this, we're awarding certificates for "the best paper of master thesis" and "the best presentation" to some excellent students at the end of every semester encouraging them to keep studying economics.

Regarding our faculty members, they've been devoting to their research and publishing journal papers and discussion papers while they have the educational work. Thanks to their effort, our department has been ranked in top 25 % institution in Japan listed on IDEAS, which is the world biggest Internet database site for economists. Our faculty members must be not only good advisers but also collaborators for students. As the evidence, all doctoral students have been publishing refereed journal papers in the process of completing their dissertation as well as some master students could publish papers and participate in international conferences to present their master thesis result.I really hope many active students from all over the world come to our department and enjoy studying economics as well as the student life in Hiroshima.

Department chair Masaru Ichihashi