4 years

The objective of this course is to provide students with the knowledge and skills required to understand and conduct policy evaluation. Policy evaluation is central in helping to decide whether to expand, modify or terminate a program or policy. The focus of the course is on rigorous qualitative evaluation tools. The course will introduce students to qualitative tools such as case study techniques, the five “E” approach (Effectiveness, Efficiency, Ethical consideration, Evaluations of alternatives, Establishment of recommendations for positive change), evidence based models, as well as othe qualitative evaluative research methodologies. 

These qualitative methods will be taught using concrete case studies and dataset that will allow students to identify the strengths and weakness of these methods and learn how to apply them to a policy problem of their choice.

Course Outline

This course focuses on preparing students to conduct an inquiry-based project in Capstone Project (Phase II). Applied Policy Analysis Consultancy (APAC): Project and Conference. It equips students with skills and knowledge in problem identification, design thinking, literature review, research methods, prototyping, ethical principles and the elements of research process within quantitative and qualitative approaches. Students will be required to form groups and prepare a research topic to be presented in the tutorials. They will then be required to write up a research proposal using the knowledge they learn and the comments gathered in the tutorials. 

This course also prepares students to develop a proposal for conducting a project-based study. This course is a scoping project designed to (1) allow the development of a formal problem statement focused on a policy problem within an organisational context; (2) identify information resources necessary to address the policy organisation problem; (3) scope and identify a formal set of methods to be applied to the policy problem; (4) develop a time-line for project implementation and execution; and (5) present the formal proposal to the Academic Supervisor and other students in a mini-conference format design to help student enhance their proposal in readiness for implementation and execution.

Course Outline

Following the Capstone Project (Phase I) and under close supervision, students proceed to implement the research design of their project. As an iterative process, this requires on-going consultation with (1) relevant individuals and the Mentor at the organisation where the student underlook his/her internship; (2) the student’s Academic Supervisor; and (3) engagement with the Capstone Project (Phase II) Coordinator.

The Capstone Project (Phase II): APAC requires the full implementation of the Capstone Project (Phase I): APAC proposal and the development of a written report to professional standards. Further, students are required to make a formal presentation of the report to the client organisation and the development of actionable recommendations that must be costed in terms of organisational resource requirements/implications, along with a feasibility assessment for implementation.

In addition to the formal write up of the Capstone Projects, the student is required to prepare a full set of briefing notes, executive summary, list of recommendations, implementation proposals to the client (internship) organisation, organisation Mentor and relevant stakeholders. This component of the Capstone Project (Phase II) is designed to synergize with the Internship and Capstone Project (Phase I) and requires students to participate in an APAC conference. The conference brings together all students, supervisors, student mentors from the client organisation, as well as other representatives from the client organisations.

Students will be organized into complementary sessions and required to formally present their Capstone Project (Phase II): APAC report to the organisation. This will include:

• Presentation of the final written report, including an executive summary, list of recommendations and implementation proposal;
• Short-verbal presentation (approximately 20 mins) in order to demonstrate problem definition, analysis, public speaking, presentation and advocacy skills;
• A short Q and A session; and
• Client feedback.

This course is designed to simulate real-life organisational contexts and requires students to be able to present findings in a persuasive and professional manner.

Course Outline

This course is delivered through the placement of students with a ‘client’ organisation (government body, civil society group, not-for-profit or private sector organisation). The student intern will be appointed an Academic Supervisor and a ‘Mentor’ within the organisation. The internship programme is overseen by the ‘Internship Programme Coordinator’.
The internship placement is designed to embed the student within an  organisation and provide opportunities for the student to understand the real-life workings, issues, problems and constraints organisations face in the management of policy related issues.
Working with the Academic Supervisor, Mentor and Internship Programme Coordinator, the student will undertake the following activities:
(a) Identify a current policy related issue the organisation is confronting (e.g., programme evaluation, policy drift, changing government ordinances, policy uncertainty, new regulatory environment, organisational adaptability and policy compliance).
Alternatively, student may elect to ‘benchmark’ organisational  practices/outcomes.
(b) Organisational mapping: identify and engage relevant organisational stakeholders.
(c) Develop communication strategies to engage key organisational office holders.
(d) Where appropriate conduct interviews, surveys, collect documentation and data.

Course Outline

This course explores major social policy challenges and issues confronting societies in Asia, with a particular focus on Greater China. Adopting a comparative approach in analyzing policy formation and implementation, this course will enable students to understand the most recent developments related to major social policy areas like education, health, social welfare, housing, elderly, youth and ethnic minorities in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau and other selected cities in Asia. This course also introduces different types of institutions (like the Non-Governmental Organizations) and modes of service delivery (like public private partnership) to students. Students will be engaged in comparing and contrasting major social policy issues of selected Asian societies, and appreciating the complexity of policy formation, implementation and evaluation from comparative perspectives.

Course Outline

A core objective of the course is to build students’ capability to conceptualize policy problems, devise strategies for addressing them, and comprehend policy documents and the mechanisms by which policy solutions are approached and implemented and assessed.

The course introduces students to policy processes and the institutional contexts that undergird decision-making in the policy-making process. Specifically, the course will address the competing and multidimensional approaches to problem identification, problem framing, agenda-setting, policy formulation, public and stakeholder consultation, processes and systems of policy implementation, monitoring, feedback and programme/policy evaluation.

The course is designed to expose students to the policy cycle and how policy is evolved, adopted, implemented and monitored in governmental, non-governmental and other institutional contexts (civil society, think tanks and advocacy coalitions).

Course Outline

Changes in the contemporary structural composition of the global political-economy increasingly impact all facets of state-market relations, not least the reach, power and authority of the state in terms of policy making processes and the means via which public policy is realized. Understanding the forces precipitating this change comprises the principal rationale of this course. The fundamental question the course deals with is the distribution of power in the international system and its consequences for public governance and state capacity.

Specifically:

• Is there a fundamental change occurring in the power relations between states are markets and between public and private sector actors in the international system?
• What new forms of governance are emerging as a consequence of this process?
• What is the magnitude of this change and what are its implications for public sector capacity and governance?

To help address these questions the course is thematically structured into three parts.

First, the course begins with an outline of the dominant modes of thinking about international political and economic relations and of the relationships between states and markets and their implications for state capacity and public sector management. This part of the course surveys the main theoretical schools of thought as they have evolved over the last several decades. It addresses conventional realist, neorealist and liberal perspectives and looks at a series of variants in these theories.

The second part of the course turns to address the emergence of international institutions and private sector authority in the international system. This part of the course surveys some of the recent empirical developments among these actors in terms of their influence, spatial reach and extensity. This part of the course then asks students to reflect on these developments in terms of the mainstream theoretical literatures and assess the merits of these literatures in light of emerging trends.

Third and finally, the last part of the course addresses the implications of these developments in terms of the functional – management issues these developments pose for regulators, the regulatory reach of the state and public sector management. In particular, the course will address the advent of risk associated with un-regulated international markets and private sector
actors and how they influence the behaviour of states, market structures and change the risk universe public actors are forced to deal with.

Course Outline

This course aims to critically engage students with contemporary issues and developments in human resource management (HRM). Adopting a diverse multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural and comparative approach the course will require students to (a) discover, analyze and contribute to providing creative solutions for specific HRM issues and enable applicants to examine the key concepts, core issues, principles and processes in HRM; (b) discover the principles and theories of HRM particularly in the public sector; and (c) apply concepts and theories to analyze HRM issues and the challenges facing the public sector today. The course expects to discuss the HRM practices in a number of Asian countries in order to demonstrate an understanding of how public sector reforms have impacted the principles and processes of HR issues.

Course Outline

This course provides students with an understanding of the role and impact of government on the functioning of a market eonomy, specifically in the provision and funding of goods and services. Students will learn to apply microeconomic and macroeconomic perspectives to concrete issues related to the financing of strategic sectors, while also addressing issues associated with central, state and municipal funding processes and public financial management. 

More broadly, the course also asks studetns to reflect critically on the reasons for government involvement in the market (distributional aims, provision of public goods and the correction of externalities) as will the economic issues associated with taxation and the allocation of tax revenues (and the varieties of models associated with these).

Course Outline

This course is designed to introduce students with the fundamentals of knowledge management (KM) for organizational earning. Knowledge management (KM) is the planning, organizing, motivating and controlling of people, processes and systems in an organization to ensure that its knowledge-related assets are improved and effectively employed. Students will be introduced to major categories of an organizations knowledge-related assets, including knowledge in the form of printed documents such as patents and manuals, knowledge stored in electronic repositories such as a “best-practices” database, employees’ knowledge about the best way to do their jobs, knowledge that is held by teams who have been working on focused problems and knowledge that is embedded in the organization’s products, processes and relationships.

Students will then be introduced to the practical processes of KM, including knowledge acquisition, creation, refinement, storage, transfer, sharing and utilization. Students will be led through a series of case studies in order to highlight KM functions in organizations and how methodologies and systems to support KM can be developed and deployed. Students will also explore the how KM can leverage and improve an organization’s knowledge assets and effect better knowledge practices, improved organizational behaviors, better decisions and improved organizational performance.

Course Outline

This course introduces students to the core issues surrounding leadership, negotiation and conflict resolution within organizational contexts. The course is skills focused and designed to impart a series of practical skills. In particular, the course focuses on the development of leadership skills, what leadership entails, and the relationship of leadership styles to successful organizational outcomes. Students will also be introduced to mapping skills for identifying organizational types and different organizational and management cultures. As part of this, students will be introduced to techniques for the management of organizational problems, such as managing change and innovation, negotiation in organizational environments and managing intra-organizational competition and conflict.

Course Outline

This course explores knowledge and skills necessary in engaging stakeholders and building coalition in public advocacy. Using real life cases, we introduce students to: (1) The Policy Paradox, which provides a framework for understanding political decision making and the struggles of different stakeholders over values and ideas; (2) Advocacy tools, processes, and models which enable students to understand advocacy formulation, implementation and evaluation; (3) Community engagement and empowerment, in which the emphasis is put on social policies and how to engage the community and the vulnerable population to build advocacy practices in a systematic and purposeful way; and (4) Social Media and Advocacy, which discusses how to engage social media and evaluates the media’s role in driving social changes. Ultimately, we train students to be creative and logical thinkers in strategizing advocacy and to become competent communicators in writing and conversing advocacy strategies.

Course Outline

The course introduces the concepts and principles that underpin strategic communication and public relations management in organisations by focusing on three main areas – (1) understanding human communication, (2) understanding contemporary communication environments and new media, and critical anlysis of the applicability and concept of stratefic communication in public relations.

This course deals with the application of tools, techiques and strategies for management of public relations and public relations campaigns from an organisational perspective. The course seeks to provides students a solid foundation in the latest concepts and practices for managing raditional and emergent media platforms, media engagement strategies, information dissemination, content management and related issues. The topics to be addressed include: methods of public relations research, strategic planning, oreoaration of public relations materials, information dissemination and content, and the use of controlled and uncontrolled media, social marketing campaigns and media strategies gor advocacy.

Course Outline

This course analyses the changing dimensions of public administration and management in Asia. Specifically, the course focuses on the forces propelling change in public managment practices across Asia, the new state-market configurations that are re-defining government-business relations, the rise of managerialism in the delivery of public sector activities and the social, political and economic implications of new public management agendas.

Course Outline

The course addresses major recent trends and developments in international public management. The course examines the impact of internationlization, policy diffusion and transfer on publc sector management and public sector reform from a comparative perspective. It enables students to analyze key aspects of public management reforms and explore processes of policy learning, emulation, the rise of international benchmarking and standard-setting practices and how this creates reform dynamics in public sector management practices. Key comparative (Asia-Pacific) public management reform practices anaalyzed include the advent of outsourcing, contracting-out practices, public private partnerships, private finance initiatives, concessions, and practices associated with New Public Management (NPM). The course will be taught using comparatice sectoral analyses (e.g., utilities, health, infrastructure, communications, etc.)

Course Outline

Management, organizational and leadership studies comprise the knowledge necessary in planning, organizing and supervising the resources of an organization. The manager and maanagement team of a public enterprise focuses on maintaining the organization’s efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of public goods and services, meeting the goals and objectives settled by the strategy plan, while employing both human and material resources to achieve theses ends. This courses examines various facets for effective and efficient leadership of public organizations, including the roles of strategic planning, organizational management of resources and resource allocation, organizational performance indictors, organizational alignment, reporting and organizational incentivisation.

Course Outline

The course assesses the causes, types and consequences of regulation. The course will address the evolution of approaches to regulation, particularly those associated with governmental attempts to overcome market failures. Key issues analyzed include why governments regulate. how governments regulate and the tools of regulation, including command-and-control, performance-based, incentiv-based, punitive based, network, risk-based and ‘nudge-based’ regulation.

The course will also address the rise of ‘regulatory capitalism’ and the ‘regulatory state’, drawing on sector case studies (e.g., utilities, telecommunications and banking).

Course Outline

This course seeks to train students in advanced methods for policy analysis and evaluation, allowing student to acquire in-depth, sophisticated skills associated with quantitative techniques. Specifically, it will equip students with advanced quantitative analytical skills, including data collection and organisation, use of graphs and descriptive statistics, regression analysis and statistical inference and developing policy implications of empirical findings. It will use a series of concrete examples to demonstrate the usefulness and practicality of these skills, thereby ensuring student understanding the applicability and applications of a quantitative research concept to solve real-world problems in public decision making. Some online learning and teaching initiatives will be introduced to enhance online pedagogical practices, strengthen quality online teaching and support learner-centred learning when the online teaching mode is adopted. For example, SPSS/Microsoft Excel, Qualtrics, and various educational tools (e.g., Padlet and Moodle Forum) will be used where appropriate.

Course Outline

The objective of this course is to equip students with advanced knowledge and skills required to understand and conduct policy evaluation of complex problems. Policy evaluation is central in helping to decide whether to expand, modify or terminate a program or policy. The focus of the course is on rigorous qualitative evaluation tools. The course will explore the utility and limitations of qualitative tools such as case study technique, the five “E” apprach: Effectiveness, Efficiency, Ethical considerations, Evaluations of alternatives, Establishment of recommendations for positive change), evidence based models, as well as other qualitative evaluative research methodologies. These qualitative methods will be taught using concrete case studies and datasets that will allow students to identify the strengths and weaknesses of these methods and learn how to apply them to a policy problem of their choice.

Course Outline

The objective of the course is to enhance students’ knowledge of the social services sector and equip them with the skills to improve the sector’s performance. Emphasis will be on practical and proven methods of management as well as innovative appraochese consistent with best professional practices. The course will also cover a critical analysis of current social problems leading to responses of the community in formulation of social policies and the organisation of social services.

Course Outline

This course focuses on the relationships between inequalities and policies. Specifically, students explore how the formulation and implementation of public policy seek to end inequalities on the one hand; and how inequalities are shaped by policies, which intertwine with labor market, institutions and power relations of various actors on the other. Examples will be drawn from various policy areas including education, health, migration, social security and housing. In terms of inequalities, this course is interested in class, gender, race and ethnicities, national background and citizenship status. By the end of the course, students are able to: (1) understand the concept of inequalities and the causes of inequalities; (2) identify and be sensitive to inequalities and inequity while being able to formulate alternative models in agenda-setting in policies; (3) evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of various measures of inequalities used in policymaking; and (4) apply policy analytic tools from a social justice perspective.

Course Outline

This course aims to critically engage students with contemporary issues and developments in human resource management (HRM). Adopting a diverse multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural and comparative approach the course will require students to (a) discover, analyze and contribute to providing creative solutions for specific HRM issues and enable applicants to examine the key concepts, core issues, principles and processes in HRM; (b) discover the principles and theories of HRM particularly in the public sector; and (c) apply concepts and theories to analyze HRM issues and the challenges facing the public sector today. The course expects to discuss the HRM practices in a number of Asian countries in order to demonstrate an understanding of how public sector reforms have impacted the principles and processes of HR issues.

Course Outline

Social protection has been a mounting challenge for many governments in Asia and the world. Population aging and frequent economic crises, along with rising income inequality and poverty are posing unprecedented threats to governments as well as families. Globalization has a further impact on social, economic and political developments of societies in Asia, which generate substantial policy implications. The course will discuss the root causes of these problems and more importantly, examine the different approaches to protecting the population from income insecurities. Adopting a comparative approach, this course will enable students to understand the design and implications of the major social protection programmes in the Asian region.

Course Outline

Social Policy and Aging focuses on key policy issues in relation to aging and late life. In particular, it explores the relationships people, key public policies and institutional structures and lived experiences of older people. This course draws on a critical perspective that attends to language, power, diverse social locations and change over time. 

Throughout the course, we will review the challenges and tensions in current policy approaches and consider pathways for change. The course offers students the opportunity to think critically about policies and organisational practices, engage in debates and formulate a deeper understanding of contemporary issues in social policy. This course gives students an opportunity to exercise their curiosity and question taken for granted language and practices in social gerontology and social care. In fulfilling the course objectives, students will develop a more complex understanding of the intersections between socio-cultural responses, program guidelines, organisational practices and lived experiences.

Course Outline

This course is designed to equip students with foundation knowledge of health policy and management, a core sector in social policy. The course adopts a comparative perspective and will enable students to go beyond theories health care delivery and examine health policy and management internationally and sector outcomes with the use of case studies. The course starts from a systematic survey of health care, health markets, health care financing, provision and public health, followed by a systematic review of health policies in selected countries and regions. Emerging contemporary health policy and management issues will also be covered. Students will engage in comparing and contrasting health policy and management arrangements and issues in Asia, with the purpose of understanding the policy background, system design and major challenges Asian health care systems confront. Students will get the opportunity to visit representative public hospitals in both Hong Kong and Mainland China, in order to deepen their understanding of the health systems closest to them.

Course Outline

Housing and housing policy in Hong Kong and Asia are changing and there is greater awareness of the role that housing and access to housing have on social issues in Hong Kong and Asia. This course explores contemporary trends in housing policy in Hong Kong and comparatively in Asia, addressing issues to do with government provision of social housing, land use and land management issues, financing of housing, housing affordability and financing trends for housing and the relative role of government and the private sector in the provision of housing.

Course Outline

The regulation of labour immigration and the rights of migrant workers are among the most controversial policy issues around the world. In public and media debates, migrants can be development ‘heros’ for their countries of origin, ‘villains’ that threaten the jobs and welfare of workers in host countries, and/or ‘victims’ of exploitation by people traffickers, recruiters and employers. 

This course analyses some of the most controversial public policy issues of the 21st century: how to regulate international labour migration and the rights of migrant workers. Integrating economics, politics and ethics, the course comprehensively discusses the determinants, impacts and regulation of labour immigration and emigration around the world, with a particular focus on case studies in Asia.

Course Outline

The course introduces the concepts and principles that underpin strategic communication and public relations management in organisations by focusing on three main areas – (1) understanding human communication, (2) understanding contemporary communication environments and new media, and critical anlysis of the applicability and concept of stratefic communication in public relations. 

This course deals with the application of tools, techiques and strategies for management of public relations and public relations campaigns from an organisational perspective. The course seeks to provides students a solid foundation in the latest concepts and practices for managing raditional and emergent media platforms, media engagement strategies, information dissemination, content management and related issues. The topics to be addressed include: methods of public relations research, strategic planning, oreoaration of public relations materials, information dissemination and content, and the use of controlled and uncontrolled media, social marketing campaigns and media strategies gor advocacy.

Course Outline

Changes in the contemporary structural composition of the global political-economy increasingly impact all facets of state-market relations, not least the reach, power and authority of the state in terms of policy making processes and the means via which public policy is realized. Understanding the forces precipitating this change comprises the principal rationale of this course. The fundamental question the course deals with is the distribution of power in the international system and its consequences for public governance and state capacity.

Specifically:

• Is there a fundamental change occurring in the power relations between states are markets and between public and private sector actors in the international system?
• What new forms of governance are emerging as a consequence of this process?
• What is the magnitude of this change and what are its implications for public sector capacity and governance?

To help address these questions the course is thematically structured into three parts.

First, the course begins with an outline of the dominant modes of thinking about international political and economic relations and of the relationships between states and markets and their implications for state capacity and public sector management. This part of the course surveys the main theoretical schools of thought as they have evolved over the last several decades. It addresses conventional realist, neorealist and liberal perspectives and looks at a series of variants in these theories.

The second part of the course turns to address the emergence of international institutions and private sector authority in the international system. This part of the course surveys some of the recent empirical developments among these actors in terms of their influence, spatial reach and extensity. This part of the course then asks students to reflect on these developments in terms of the mainstream theoretical literatures and assess the merits of these literatures in light of emerging trends.

Third and finally, the last part of the course addresses the implications of these developments in terms of the functional – management issues these developments pose for regulators, the regulatory reach of the state and public sector management. In particular, the course will address the advent of risk associated with un-regulated international markets and private sector
actors and how they influence the behaviour of states, market structures and change the risk universe public actors are forced to deal with.

Course Outline

The course seeks to train students in advanced methods for policy analysis and evaluation, allowing student to acquire in-depth, sophisticated skills associated with quantitative techniques. Specifically, it will equip students with advanced quantitative analytical skills, including data collection and organisation, use of graphs and descriptive statistics, regression analysis and statistical inference and developing policy implications of empirical findings. It will use a series of concrete examples to demonstrate the usefulness and practicality of these skills, thereby ensuring student understanding the applicability and applications of a quantitative research concept to solve real-world problems in public decision making. 

Some online learning and teaching initiatives will be introduced to enhance online pedagogical practices, strengthen quality online teaching and support learner-centred learning when the online teaching mode is adopted. For example, SPSS/Microsoft Excel, Qualtrics, and various educational tools (e.g. Padlet and Moodle Forum) will be used where appropriate.

Course Outline

The objective of this course is to equip students with advanced knowledge and skills required to understand and conduct policy evaluation of complex problems. Policy evaluation is central in helping to decide whether to expand, modify or terminate a program or policy. The focus of the course is on rigorous qualitative evaluation tools. The course will explore the utility and limitations of qualitative tools such as case study technique, the five “E” apprach: Effectiveness, Efficiency, Ethical considerations, Evaluations of alternatives, Establishment of recommendations for positive change), evidence based models, as well as other qualitative evaluative research methodologies. These qualitative methods will be taught using concrete case studies and datasets that will allow students to identify the strengths and weaknesses of these methods and learn how to apply them to a policy problem of their choice.

Course Outline

The course aims to provide concepts, insights and practical skills for leading and managing successfully in tertiary sector institutions. It offers expert perspectives on higher education, vocational education, training systems, policy settings, institutional strategies and tertiary sector work cultures in a national and international context. The course will focus on higher education topography in Asia. Drawing on case studies from higher education institutions from Asia, the course attempts to examine how higher education institutions meet with political, social and economic needs and how higher education institutions in Asia is connecting with the Global education topography.

Course Outline

The course introduces the concepts and principles that underpin strategic communication in organisations by focusing in three main areas – understanding human communication, understanding contemporary communication environments and new media, and critical analysis of the applicability and concept of strategic communication. The course intends to equip students with necessary communication skills to tackle communication issues while conducting policy advocacy and when implementing and formulating policies and how policies could be best communicated to different stakeholders. This course will also tackle specifically on strategically communicating with stakeholders and handle crisis in the higher education sector. 

Course Outline