on february 23, the asian region competition of the 2019 naspaa-batten global students simulation contest was held in kdi school of public policy & management in south korea. the theme of this contest was "global immigration and refugee crisis". the competition was held simultaneously in 11 competition areas around the world, attracted 585 students from 137 schools and universities in 27 countries. tsinghua sppm was led by associate professor zheng zhenqing, the academic director of impa program, organized and coordinated by cheng yue from the case study center. five master students participated in the competition, including wang chenjie, a chinese student of mpa program, bushra batool zaidi, a pakistani student from impa-bri program, as well as vietnamese student lincoln quang dong, brunei student rasyidah ibrahim, and colombian student andrés melendro blanco, all from mpp-sdg program. after a day of fierce competition, the tsinghua university team successfully entered the final stage of presentation and did an excellent job.
students from tsinghua university simulated as five leaders from country capalla in the “second world".
introduction to the competition
naspaa (network of schools of public policy, affairs, and administration) organizes a policy simulation competition for students majoring in public administration every year, it is committed to providing mpa students in universities around the world with a platform for learning, exploring and exchanging ideas, guiding students to use scientific decision simulation tools, exploring effective solutions to public policy problems, improving students' systematic and critical thinking ability, and promoting the popularization of simulation teaching methods to universities around the world. this is naspaa's fifth competition and its third cooperation with frank barton school of leadership and public policy of university of virginia. the policy simulation tool for this competition was developed and designed by center for leadership simulation and gaming (clsg) of the university of virginia based on real data.
the site of the competition
details of the competition
a total of 59 students from 13 universities participated in the competition held in the kdi school in south korea, with judges coming from the kdi school as well as the south korea office of the international organization for migration (iom). the students were divided into three simulated worlds. students from each world were divided into four simulated countries, with a total of 12 teams. students from each country played the roles of prime minister, minister of labor, minister of health and human services, interior minister, and representative of the international organization altrippa treaty group. the roles had to be changed in each round of the competition. based on the economic and social development of their own countries and other countries in the region, the contestants comprehensively took into consideration of factors including fiscal budget, gdp, employment rate, human rights index, public opinion, made public affair decisions to control immigrants and refugees by using simulation software, and submitted policy memoranda.
tsinghua university team in the competition
during the competition, many participating teams adopted conservative fiscal policies based on the principle of protecting their own country’s interests after consideration and consultation, and made every effort to ensure that their country's economy and society could withstand the influx of refugees successfully. tsinghua university team was one of these teams at the beginning stage of the competition.
however, after two rounds of drills, tsinghua university team found that it was difficult to properly resettle the refugees in the whole world by one country alone, and they should work with other countries to contribute to the resettlement and transformation of refugees. as a result, tsinghua university team quickly changed its mentality from the original "conservative" policy, which emphasized economy and stability, to the "open" global co-governance policy, which emphasized human rights and cooperation. "prime minister" lincoln set the tone of the country's overall policy and assigned tasks to various ministers. andrés, minister of health and human services, bushra, interior minister, and wang chenjie, minister of labor, worked together to provide assistance and care to refugees entering the country through various measures including humanitarian assistance, employment support, and naturalization of nationality. rasyidah, who was entrusted with diplomatic missions, showed his great power in the "diplomatic negotiations" and successfully persuaded "leaders" of other countries in the same "world" to pour all kinds of help and provide valuable material support for the resettlement and transformation of refugees.
tsinghua university students negotiated with leaders from other simulated countries
during the competition, the judges of the competition held a notebook and toured the stadium to observe the discussion process of the players. they inspected the decision-making mechanism of each team, asked questions from time to time to record the performance of the participating teams.
after the policy simulation, the competition played a video revealing the spirit of the competition. it turned out that the situations in various simulated countries and the refugee problems they were facing were not fictitious but real crises from the real international communities. how should the international societies respond to social unrest and displacement? was it to protect oneself behind closed doors or open their arms? was it cruel expulsion or resettlement? whether it was real or virtual, the attitudes towards refugees vary from country to country, and the policies were also very different. naspaa used this competition to send a message to the world: the response and resettlement of refugees are global issues, and no country can be isolated.
tsinghua university team’s policy of crossing the borders and implementing global co-governance was highly consistent with the theme of the competition, and won the praises of the judges. the team took the lead in entering the final stage of presentation, and was given the opportunity to report and defense together with other four excellent teams.
the judges of the competition scored based on factors such as the results of the simulation, the final presentation, the players' negotiation and team cooperation. finally, the korean kdi school team, the organizer of the competition, became the winner of this competition area.
tsinghua university team made a report and defense
this was the third time that tsinghua sppm had sent students to participate in the naspaa-batten global students simulation contest. in 2017, the competition was held for the first time in asia. tsinghua university was the first university in asia to undertake the competition. in 2018, the school selected three students to participate in the asian region competition organized by the university of international business and economics. tsinghua sppm’s student trent s. lawrence’s team won the first prize in this competition area. the competition in 2017 and 2018 were in the form of a mixed team of students from all universities. in 2019, the competition allowed each university to send its own team for the first time. tsinghua sppm sent out an international team of five students from different countries.
group photo of tsinghua university team
impressions of the competition
after the competition, the students said that the one-day competition was tense and interesting. it was very challenging to quickly get familiar with policy simulation tools, however, since they were able to think about the global refugee problem from the perspectives of different leaders and decision makers, they benefited a lot from it. in addition, through the competition and communication with other students, they fully cultivated their abilities in negotiation, team cooperation, quick response and application of professional knowledge.
wang chenjie: as the only chinese student in the team, this competition not only improved my language communication ability, but also made me realize the importance of unity and cooperation, and harmony without uniformity. in the process of communicating with foreign teammates, i found that the different thinking modes will bring surprising thought collisions, thus generating the result of "think outside the box", making the team stand out in the competition. i will keep my passion and continue to make progress. i also hope that there will be more opportunities for international exchanges in the future.