I had many positive experiences at IPP as a double degree student. All the courses I took are interesting, the way courses are conducted are very stimulating. On top of that, after learning at the IPP, I gained a very positive feeling that I would be able to contribute to the world with my knowledge, skills and attitude to make a difference. 

I studied at a university in Korea for the third year of my undergraduate studies. The academic experience there made me want to learn more about Asia and Asia-Pacific region. The economic development in Korea and Japan caught my attention first. Then, thinking about the current issues, Asia and Indo-Pacific has become really important for many areas of international relations, such as security, trade, technology, or sustainability. I thought it was important to know about Asia more. As Asia and Europe are culturally very different, I thought that it was important to be exposed to different cultures to understand different ways of thinking. I chose the double degree program as I thought it enabled me to get better knowledge and better experience than exchange programs. 

I really enjoyed having the small classes. In most classes, after professors introduce and explain the concept, then we have class discussions or activities about the concept, which really helped me learn the concept better by discussing with the professor and other students.

In the course “Law and Philosophy”, we learned the philosophy and morality of law. Since laws are supposed to make society better or make people happier, lots of philosophical discussions were made in the classes. Having a philosophical background is important for the study of politics or international relations as ultimately, we deal with people.

In the course “Special Seminar Ⅳ(Economic Security)”by Professor Ferguson,  we learn theories and then discuss about current events. During the discussion, he encouraged us to put theory into practice by posing practical questions about how these concepts could be applied and whether we could find data on their economic consequences. For example, we examined how Japan’s economic security was affected after the Prime Minister made comments regarding Taiwan. Through actively participating in these classes, I developed greater confidence in my understanding, as I became increasingly able to apply theoretical concepts and knowledge to analyze current events.

Actually, in most IPP courses, instructors teach us not just theories, they train us to put them into practice using real cases. This helped me greatly in writing my thesis and research paper as I needed to feel more confident to legitimately write them. 

At the IPP, we learn international relations with the current issues. I found that the perspectives on them is very different between France and Japan. I leaned them though discussions with professors and other IPP students from different countries. It’s always been interesting to gain different perspectives on the same topic, same theory, how they can apply differently. I think it’s essential to have multiple perspectives for students in the field of International Relations. Also, I realized the importance of being aware that I might be biased when thinking about every topic.

Other than what I mentioned above, the strongest point of the IPP is that professors are always accessible to students. I can always ask them for guidance and they always take time for students, which always helped me in every aspect of my study at the IPP. 

Many of my friends are overwhelmed by what’s going on in the world, War in Ukraine, confrontation between Iran and the US/Israel, disregard of international laws, etc. After learning many theories and methodologies and how to put them into practice to analyze the current issues and make recommendations to make the world better, I became more confident in doing something with the tools I equipped with at the IPP to make the differences. This positive feeling of self-efficacy is the most valuable quality that I acquired over the course of the time at the IPP and the reason for recommending the IPP to prospective students.