This course addresses public service human resource management in and beyond Hong Kong from a variety of perspectives. It appreciates the key significance of aligning organisations, people and power in government and governance. The alignments are forged within contexts and traditions and, more specifically, are bound by capacity needs and by associated laws, policies and practices. They involve the appointment, promotion, development, motivation, remuneration and performance of people, subject to leadership, change and reform.

Assessment: 100% coursework

This course introduces students to the key concepts and theoretical approaches in the study of public policy process. The course is organized into three parts. Part one examines the basic concepts used in analyzing the policy process and the political and institutional contexts of policy making. Part two discusses the major theoretical approaches to the study of policy making and, policy implementation and assesses their strengths and limitations. Part three analyses the politics of policy making in Hong Kong and discusses the applicability of the concepts and theories in public policy studies to the real world. Selected policy issues will also be examined to illustrate the dynamics of the policy process in Hong Kong.

Assessment: 60% coursework, 40% examination

This course recognises and addresses that, over the last three to four decades, established systems of public management around the world have been subject to widespread reform embracing significant issues of organisational integration, autonomy, verticalism and horizontalism. Many people, organisations and power alignments have been affected by the adoption particularly of various forms of decentralisation, corporatisation and privatisation. This has resulted in numerous mixes of state, market and civil society activity involving contractual relationships, partnerships, networks and other strategic alliances.

Assessment: 50% coursework, 50% examination

The course is organized into three parts. Part one examines the key concepts and approaches in analyzing public policy and the political and institutional contexts of policymaking. Part two discusses the major approaches to the study of the policy process, policy design, and policy tools. Part three analyzes several key issues that are particularly relevant for Hong Kong and other Asia societies, namely aging, health care, housing, and innovation and technology.

Assessment: 100% coursework

This course will take the portfolio of climate change and environmental policy in Hong Kong as an example to share the local experience and observations in the practice of public policy and administration. The course contents will be largely based on selected policy cases to illustrate the practices and challenges. The relevant issues such as political accountability, political and policy processes, executive-legislative relationship, public engagement, control of public utility companies, and public education and publicity will also be touched on.

Assessment: 100% coursework

This course combines academic discussions with practical experiences in public policy-making in Hong Kong. Through cases from different policy areas, it analyzes how the concepts and theories of public policy are applied in the actual policy-making process. Concepts such as policy formulation process, policy implementation, policy coordination, public engagement, and policy review, along with relevant academic works, will be covered in this course. These concepts and theories will be applied to different policy areas in Hong Kong such as healthcare, welfare, labour, environmental protection, and so on. By integrating theory with practical experience, students will gain a deeper understanding of the scientific nature of policy "science" as well as the "art" of real-world policy-making.

Assessment: 100% coursework

This course involves thematic seminars on Chinese politics, national governance, political development and other research themes, focusing on studying and summarizing the experiences and lessons of governance in China from the perspectives of party governance, government governance, society governance, and market regulation. It examines topics such as environmental governance, anti-corruption policy, economic development, and the construction of the rule of law, emphasizing institutional arrangements, decision-making systems and mechanisms, policy orientations, and policy measures.

Assessment: 30% coursework, 70% examination

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have become integral to the practice of public administration. For those who plan to work in government or public sector organizations, understanding how to manage diversity and promote equity is vital to serving effectively, whether in policy design, service delivery, or building professional rapport with colleagues, clients, and external stakeholders. As the fourth pillar of public administration, along with economy, efficiency, and effectiveness, social equity requires comprehensive examination across different institutional and national contexts. This course aims to understand the issues of diversity and equity and how to address them in public administration in both western and nonwestern contexts. It is divided into three parts. Part I will introduce the major theoretical origins and practical significance of diversity and equity in public administration. Part II will discuss the issues of diversity and equity in the classic western contexts and the role of governments in addressing them. Part III will examine the diversity and equity issues in public administration of nonwestern contexts especially in China. Students are expected to use the relevant theories and real-world practice to discuss the administrative and policy instruments to address diversity and equity issues in different contexts.

Assessment: 100% coursework

This course focuses on the normative aspects of public policy and public administration. Using concepts and arguments, which are mainly derived from moral philosophy, the course examines the ethical justifications for, and the moral implications of, the policy choices and conduct of public officials. It will also examine the issues and challenges in maintaining responsible conduct in public organization and the strategies to maintain and enhance public administration ethics.

Assessment: 100% coursework

This course examines the nature, processes, causes and effects of budgeting as a fiscal instrument to enhance economic growth, as a mechanism for the allocation of scarce resources, and as a management tool for executive planning and financial control. It will also analyze the macroeconomic and political contexts of budgeting and other key concepts and issues in financial management in the public sector.

Assessment: 60% coursework, 40% examination

This course examines the legal regulation of governmental powers at the constitutional and administrative levels. Topics include: the constitutional development of Hong Kong under “One Country Two Systems” and the Basic Law; principles of constitutional and legal interpretation; constitutional protection of human rights under the Basic Law and the Bill of Rights; the nature of judicial review of administrative actions; exercise of discretionary powers by administrative officials; principles of judicial review and their application in actual cases.

Assessment: 50% coursework, 50% examination

This course examines the context and key issues of public administration and the policy process in contemporary China; including the political system, legal reform, civil service system, fiscal system, party and state institutions; performance management and central-local relations. It also addresses recent developments in major policy areas such as social security, education reform and economic reform.

Assessment: 100% coursework

This course focuses on conceptual and analytical skills and techniques required for understanding, and suggesting solutions to, policy problems. It examines major components of public policy analysis – problem definition, policy design, and policy assessment.

Assessment: 100% coursework

This course introduces students to the key concepts and approaches in the comparative study of public policy and explores how they can be employed to analyse the variations in policy processes, policy contents and policy outcomes across different societies. Our focus will be on the role of policy actors and values, policy instruments, policy design, and policy processes. Comparisons between the experience and performance in public policies in different areas will be attempted to deepen our knowledge of the nature, characteristics, and dynamics of public policy and governance in different political systems. While the existing literature in comparative public policy focuses on the experience of developed countries, this course will pay more attention to Hong Kong, Chinese Mainland, and other Asian societies. The course is organized into three parts. Part one examines the key concepts and approaches in analysing public policy and the political and institutional contexts of policy-making. Part two discusses the major approaches to the study of the policy process, policy design, and policy tools. Part three analyses several key issues that are particularly relevant for Hong Kong and other Asia societies, such as aging, health care, housing, and innovation and technology.

Assessment: 100% coursework

This course examines the relationships between and among the state, market and civil society with particular reference to the work of those not-for-profit organizations and associations which are normally referred to as NGOs. It focuses on the legal-structural dimensions of NGOs and the ways in which they operate in the production, provision, ownership, regulation and facilitation of various goods and services.

Assessment: 60% coursework, 40% examination

This course recognises that public administration remains an essential feature of government around the world, alongside and coupled with significant developments in public management and public governance. As with these developments, it has been subject to significant ongoing adaptation and transformation. The pressures for change have been founded in, and beyond, the nature and demands of the political systems and societies in which administrative decisions are made, action occurs and evaluations undertaken. The result has been increased structural, operational and review diversity, involving numerous organisational responses and challenges which are valuably studied from comparative perspectives.

Assessment: 50% coursework, 50% examination

The course is designed for practitioners in the field of public administration and public policy. It seeks to enhance students’ understanding of organizational phenomena and discusses potential strategies for enhancing the management and performance of public organizations. Studies and practices of organizations from different sectors are drawn on as learning materials. The course aims to develop students’ ability to understand and analyze the characteristics and functioning of public organizations. At the end of the semester, students will also be equipped with some basic tools for improving organizational performance.

Assessment: 100% coursework

This course examines selected topics that address the key issues in the theory and practice of public management. It will be offered from time to time as resources permit.

Assessment: 100% coursework

This course will advance students’ understanding of nonprofit management and how government could work with nonprofits in carrying out public policies or delivering public services. It will draw upon theories advanced by the scholarly community and provide case studies for in-depth analysis of key themes in nonprofit management, such as legal framework and institutional environment, governance, public and nonprofit partnership, accountability, contracting, strategic planning, and leadership.

Assessment: 100% coursework

Public policies and management do not take place in a vacuum. It is essential for public managers to possess a good awareness and understanding of their embedded political context. The course applies various institutional approaches to understand the political-institutional structures and processes in which various public policies and management were practiced. It is a master–level course designed for practitioners in the field of public administration and policy who need to master the skills of managing various projects, programs, and particularly larger-scale public policy and management reforms. In this course, learning resources will be drawn on from theories and practices proposed by both academics and practitioners.

Assessment: 100% coursework

Recent transformations of state, private, and society have increased the importance of collaborative governance in terms of formulating, determining, and implementing public policy. Collaborative governance requires the governments to engage the public, private, and civil society stakeholders at multi-levels. Students will gain a solid understanding of the role of collaborative governance in contemporary public administration.

Assessment: 100% coursework

This course aims to examine the context, structure, people and important issues in making and implementing public policies in contemporary China. The course provides students a basic understanding of China’s public administration system and public policy process. Several very important topics will be covered, including the government structure and intergovernmental relations, and how to manage public employees, and key issues in policy-making and implementation in contemporary China. This course encourages students to learn public policy analysis targeting real hot issues unfolding during China’s reform era. Sample policy areas include food safety management, waste management and crisis management. The newly emerged modes of public service delivery in China will also be discussed.

Assessment: 100% coursework

This course provides an introduction to program evaluation. The main objective of this course is to familiarise students with a wide range of evaluation methods that are increasingly used to evaluate programs and inform their design and implementation. Students will begin by reflecting on the inherent complexity involved in program evaluation and the importance of evaluation planning and design. Students will then engage with basic statistical techniques that underly evaluation methodologies. The remainder of the course will focus on introducing and applying the major evaluation frameworks. These include quantitative frameworks (e.g. field and laboratory experiments, quasi-experimental methods) and synthetic evaluations. By the end of the course, students will be able to design, implement and run a basic program evaluation, and critically engage with published program evaluations in the academic and grey literatures. No previous university-level quantitative knowledge is required for this course.

Assessment: 100% coursework

We live in a world being reshaped at extraordinary speed by technology and innovation — from how we consume online, to where we access information, to the future of work itself. The greatest challenge today is no longer inventing new technologies; it is helping users and policymakers understand their benefits and risks, and ensuring they are applied responsibly in a digital society where citizens expect more efficient public services and stronger protection of personal data. These are the central questions this course will explore.

Drawing on the instructor’s extensive, first hand experience at Meta (formerly Facebook) across the Asia Pacific region, as well as close observation of how regulatory landscapes worldwide have shifted — and increasingly diverged — the course examines the frontlines of digital policy. Students will engage with conflicts over data governance, the intersection of geopolitics and technology, and the infrastructure underpinning AI. Academic perspectives such as network theory, public goods, digital colonialism, and trilemma frameworks will provide analytical depth.

Through more than a dozen real world case studies, including comparative analyses of U.S., EU, and Asian governance models, students will gain practical insight into how digital societies are managed and contested. The course also emphasizes skill building: students will learn to craft policy papers, reframe policy narratives, and collaborate on a group project addressing a chosen issue in digital governance.

The course offers a deep introduction to the science and technology policy ecosystem in South Korea and the neighboring economies in northeastern Asia. Running as an active “impact lab” over an intensive five-day block, the curriculum moves beyond standard lectures to blend research insights from technology and science policy scholars at SNU and other leading universities with institutional exchanges and field engagements with policy players at the forefront of industry. The academic lectures will address critical themes such as the structural history of national technology and innovation policies, the integration of artificial intelligence across government entities and services, and the trajectories in which innovation ecosystems and policy tools have evolved. To ground the academic research in real-world cases, students will join customized site visits to both domestic tech giants and their multinational counterparts to learn how their business, operational, and regulatory situations and choices differ, and compare the extent to which regional economies have managed to cultivate an environment where established players and new market entrants compete and thrive together. Through additional dialogues with lawmakers and government officials, students will gain first-hand access to the academic architects, corporate leaders, and policymakers overseeing one of the world’s most dynamic digital economies.

Eligibility: Students who have taken POLI8008 are not eligible to take this course.

Assessment: 100% coursework