With neat green lawns and clean white arches, the colonial-era architecture of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy reflects the calm and order typical of Singapore. The campus was once home to Raffles College, the alma mater of Mr Lee, Singapore’s founding father, who is credited with driving the efficient government and faultless public services that add to the draw of studying policy in the city-state.

修剪整齐的绿草坪、洁白的拱门，新加坡国立大学李光耀公共政策学院(Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy)的殖民时期建筑反映出新加坡典型的宁静和秩序。新加坡国立大学的前身是莱佛士学院(Raffles College)，新加坡开国之父李光耀的母校；李光耀因推动了高效率政府和完美的公共服务而备受赞誉，这给在新加坡学习公共政策增添了吸引力。

“Singapore is a wonderful public policy laboratory,” says Kishore Mahbubani, dean at the Lee Kuan Yew School. For years, growing numbers of students in the US and Europe have been opting for a Master of Public Policy (MPP) over the traditional MBA as they search for a course that trains students for government, civil society and the media.

“新加坡是一个极好的公共政策实验室，”李光耀公共政策学院院长马凯硕(Kishore Mahbubani)表示。多年来，越来越多的欧美学生选择公共政策硕士(MPP)，而非传统的MBA，因为他们在寻找提供政府、公民社会和媒体方面培训的课程。

As policymakers around the world look to Asia, drawn by the prospect of fast-growing markets such as China and India, many students are keen to gain experience on the continent, flocking to institutions like the Lee Kuan Yew School, the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Tokyo and the Jindal School of Government and Public Policy near New Delhi, all of which run MPP courses in English.

在全球各地的政策制定者将目光投向亚洲之际，受中国和印度等快速增长市场的前景吸引，很多学生迫切希望获得有关亚洲的经验。他们纷纷报考李光耀公共政策学院、东京大学(University of Tokyo)公共政策大学院(Graduate School of Public Policy)以及新德里附近的金德尔政府与公共政策学院(Jindal School of Government and Public Policy)等学校，这些学校都开设英文授课的MPP课程。

“Europe represents the past, America represents the present, Asia represents the future,” Prof Mahbubani adds. “So, if you’re a young person do you want to place bets on the past or the future?”

“欧洲代表过去，美国代表现在，亚洲代表未来，”马凯硕教授补充称，“因此，如果你是个年轻人，你是想押注于过去还是押注于未来？”

Asian policy schools remain fledglings when compared with their US peers. The Harvard Kennedy School of Government, in particular, was the template for the Lee Kuan Yew School when it was set up in 2004. Much like their western counterparts, MPP courses in Asia have the goal of equipping people to improve governance. Through one- or two-year programmes, students are taught basic economics, politics and quantitative skills, before taking elective courses on everything from trade to security.

与美国学校相比，亚洲的公共政策学院仍羽翼未丰。在2004年创办时，李光耀公共政策学院特别参照的模板是哈佛大学肯尼迪政府学院(Harvard Kennedy School of Government)。与西方同类学校大体一样，亚洲MPP课程的培养目标是让学生毕业后能够为改善政府治理出力。在一两年的课程学习中，学员会先学习基础的经济学和政治学知识、以及定量分析技能，然后学习从贸易到安全的各种选修课程。

The Lee Kuan Yew School, the best known option in Asia, now has three postgraduate courses for those with different professional experience. Prof Mahbubani says 60–70 per cent of those admitted are offered financial aid to ensure that students come from varied backgrounds. There is also an aim to recruit an equal number of students from Singapore, Southeast Asia, China, India and the rest of the world.

李光耀公共政策学院是亚洲最知名的公共政策学院，如今针对不同专业经历的人士开设3种硕士课程。马凯硕教授表示，60%至70%的被录取者会获得助学金，以确保学员背景的多样性。该校录取政策还有一个目标是，让来自新加坡、东南亚、中国、印度和全球其他地区的学员比例相同。

The Global Public Policy Network — a partnership that includes Columbia University in New York and the London School of Economics and Political Science, as well as 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 a strong insight into emerging markets.

对于希望为学员提供知名西方大学品牌以及对新兴市场深刻洞见的亚洲课程而言，全球公共政策联盟(Global Public Policy Network)至关重要。纽约哥伦比亚大学(Columbia University)、伦敦政治经济学院(London School of Economics and Political Science)、李光耀公共政策学院以及东京大学公共政策大学院都是该联盟的成员。

Khasan Redjaboev, for example, grew up in Uzbekistan, where he dabbled in entrepreneurship and was an education consultant to the government, before enrolling as a double-degree student at Sciences Po in Paris and the Lee Kuan Yew School. The 26-year-old says he sees an advantage to studying in the Asian market: the opportunity to be a big fish in a small pond.

例如，哈桑•雷贾博耶夫(Khasan Redjaboev)在乌兹别克斯坦长大，他在那里尝试过创业，当过政府的教育顾问，后来他注册为巴黎政治学院(Sciences Po)和李光耀公共政策学院的双学位学生。这名26岁的学员表示，他认为在亚洲学习的优势是：有机会成为小池塘里的一条大鱼。

“Since Paris is quite big and people are quite fancy … you don’t really get to meet the top people. It is nearly impossible for a student to have a dinner one-on-one with the chief executive of a big company,” he says. “But in Singapore it is possible.”

“巴黎很大，那里的人很优秀……你其实没有机会见到最优秀的人。一名学生单独与一家大公司的首席执行官吃饭几乎是不可能的，”他表示，“但这在新加坡是有可能的。”

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 is a way in which newer institutions can compete. “The Kennedy School is a longstanding model but actually what we did is to set up an alternative network model,” he says.

除了提供交换生项目和联合学位，全球公共政策联盟的成员学校还会合作开展跨境活动和研究。对于东京大学公共政策大学院院长城山英明(Hideaki Shiroyama)而言，通过这种联盟，较新兴的学校可以参与竞争。他表示：“肯尼迪学院是一个能够长久存续的模式，但实际上我们所做的是创建了一个另类联盟模式。”

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 point out that 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, a partner at Parthenon-EY, the education consultancy, explaining that many international students eager to study in China and India are reluctant to work in the emerging markets in the long term.

然而，公共政策项目很难与老牌MBA商学院竞争（后者会开展娴熟的招聘活动，还提供就业咨询），亚洲较新兴的公共政策学院还受到教育分析人士的批评，他们指出，花大价钱念硕士项目的学生是希望在毕业后找到一份非常好的工作。教育咨询机构巴特农-安永(Parthenon-EY)合伙人克伦•克赫姆克(Karan Khemka)表示：“即便申请者来自全球各地，但就业面向的是本土市场。”他解释称，希望在中国和印度学习的很多留学生不愿长期在新兴市场工作。

Yet, for those looking beyond their pay cheque, schools in Asia 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 a student who is searching for a World Bank job but someone who is looking for the meaning of India.”

然而，对于那些不关注薪资的人而言，亚洲学校能够带来不同的政策视角。在印度，金德尔政府与公共政策学院的学者认为，具备新兴市场经验的教授会在贫困和农业等挑战方面提供更有用的视角，而这可能是新加坡和波士顿的学者难以提供的。“李光耀学院的情况会让你会认为，公共政策是政府的延伸——而在这里，我们是受民主推动的，”金德尔政府与公共政策学院副院长希沃•维斯沃纳滕(Shiv Visvanathan)表示，“你会招到不同类型的学生，这种学生不是在物色世界银行(World Bank)的工作，而是在找寻印度的意义。”

Just four years old, the Jindal School, named after the Indian business family, faces starkly different challenges to its peers in Tokyo and Singapore. The fledgling institution is not part of the global network and with just 25 graduate students on the postgraduate course every year, it draws from a different pool. Of the 20 per cent of overseas students every year, the majority come from Africa. The school’s Rs600,000 ($9,050) fees for the residential two-year course, though piffling compared with the $45,697 tuition fee for just a year at Harvard, is still a stretch for many of its students. Mr Sarkar says three individuals a year have a full scholarship with others receiving funding of 20–50 per cent.

仅仅创建4年的金德尔政府与公共政策学院面临着与东京和新加坡的公共政策学院截然不同的挑战。该学院是以印度一个企业家族的名字命名的。这所年轻的学院并非全球公共政策联盟的成员，每年的硕士课程仅有25名学员，其生源有所不同。海外留学生占该学院学员的20%，其中大多数来自非洲。该学院的全日制两年住校课程学费为60万印度卢比（合9050美元），与哈佛大学一年就45697美元的学费相比简直微不足道，但对该学院很多学生而言仍然太贵。瑟克尔(Sarkar)表示，每年有3人获得全额奖学金，还有一些学生会获得20%至50%的资助。

Meanwhile, it is still difficult to draw top talent from India, where the most accomplished students are encouraged to study engineering and then pursue an MBA. Those that do choose a degree in public policy after studying maths and science often struggle with qualitative courses.

与此同时，这所学校仍然很难吸引到印度最优秀的人才前来就读。在印度，最优秀的学生会被鼓励学习工程，而后攻读MBA。那些在学习数学和自然科学后选择攻读公共政策学位的学生通常会在定性分析类课程方面遇到困难。

“Students don’t have the analytical capacity because that’s not how they were trained,” Prof Sarkar explains. “How do you go about imparting that? How do you make students think and think logically?”

“学生不具备分析能力，因为他们没有接受过这样的训练，”瑟克尔教授解释称，“你怎么才能教会他们这个呢？你怎么才让学生思考问题、并且是有逻辑地思考问题呢？”

Just as those in India see poverty and chaos as a major draw for young people interested in solving policy issues, the Japanese school sees itself as a developed world environment from which to explore Asia. “Going to China might be dynamic but there is some difficulty in living in Beijing with the culture and freedom and accessibility,” explains Prof Shiroyama, who estimates that 50–60 per cent of the school’s international students come from Asia. “Japan can be like a bridge between emerging Asia and developed countries.”

在印度，一些人认为贫困和混乱是年轻人对解决政策问题感兴趣的主要原因，而东京大学公共政策大学院把自己视为一个可以让学生探究亚洲的发达国家环境。“中国可能活力十足，但住在北京，会遇到一些有关文化、自由和参与能力的问题，”城山英明解释道，“日本可以成为连接亚洲新兴市场与发达国家的桥梁。”他估计，该学院50%至60%的国际学员来自亚洲。

While education analysts and academics look at the curriculum, students often have more practical reasons for enrolling in Asian policy schools. The most obvious is the lower cost. Tuition is an annual Y535,800 ($4,428) for the international MPP in Tokyo, on top of an admissions fee of Y282,000, while the Lee Kuan Yew School’s international MPP students pay S$34,500 ($24,585) once state subsidies are accounted for.

教育分析人士和学者会考虑课程设置，而学生报考亚洲政策学院通常有着更实际的理由。最明显的原因是学费较低。东京大学国际MPP每年学费为53.58万日元(合4428美元)，另外还有28.2万日元的录取费。如果考虑到有政府补贴的话，李光耀公共政策学院的国际MPP学员的学费是3.45万新元(合24585美元)。

For Mr Redjaboev, the decision to take a joint degree in Paris and Singapore was easy. Harvard and Princeton have a cachet but the US government is not considered friendly to his own administration, or to those his friends would like to join elsewhere in central Asia and Russia. If the goal is a job in the civil service, he says, opting for a US school could be counterproductive.

对于雷贾博耶夫而言，做出在巴黎和新加坡攻读双学位的决定很容易。哈佛大学和普林斯顿大学(Princeton)的声望很高，但美国政府被公认对乌兹别克斯坦政府、以及他的朋友们希望求职的中亚其他政府和俄罗斯政府并不友好。他表示，如果求学的目的是毕业后做公务员，那么选择美国的学校可能会适得其反。