Public Policy & Public Management
Public Policy & Public Management (PPPM) is is designed to provide students with a general foundation in the nature of public and non-profit workplaces and their political, psychological, and legal environments. In addition, the major heightens students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills through various types of field research and case studies.
In particular, the major is unique in its emphasis on the integration of academic study with real policy problems that is further enhanced through the Public Policy Task Force Programme.
The Task Force is an important part of the PPPM curriculum and is designed to give students the opportunity to apply knowledge and skills acquired in the classrooms to real world problems. Students will engage in collaborative, client-oriented, and problem-solving projects on critical public policy and management issues.
The PPPM faculty will work closely with practitioners with extensive experience in policy and management from both the private and public sectors to allow students to gain practical insights on government and public affairs. Upon completion of this second major, students will be well equipped to pursue careers in non-profit, public and private sector organizations.
PPPM 101 Public Sector Management (offered in AY 2016 - 2017 T1)
This course is designed to explore significant developments and themes in the field of public policy and public management. This course serves the needs of those who wish to learn how public, private, and non-profit sectors as well as general citizens work together in producing ‘public goods.’ Traditional public administration and management literature has mainly focused on the role of government agencies in public affairs, but with increasing external pressure and changing environment, co-production of public good is an unavoidable trend. We explore the proposition that more opened and collective engagement can make governance more legitimate, fair, and effective by examining many innovations in governance that range from neighborhood to national scale, in the United States, Latin America, Europe, and East Asia. These ‘real world’ cases range across many issues.
This course in public sector management is built on lectures and students’ contribution through discussion, case works and other course activities. The objective of the course is for students to gain an overview of both issues and practices related to public policy and public management while acquiring skills for working in small groups. The course focuses on the core issues surrounding the concepts, context, and the core functions of public management from both old and new perspectives. It provides a theoretical and empirical background along with the practical knowledge acquired through case analysis.
PPPM105 New Thinking in Governance
Governance and public policy contend with a world that is increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA). Traditional approaches to policymaking continue to be relevant and necessary in some cases, but are also insufficient and need to be complemented by new ways of thinking. This module examines the key paradigms in policy work, particularly the role(s) played by government (the state) and the market, and then explores how new and complementary roles for communities, business and other sectors have developed in recent policy cases.
PPPM106 Policy Design and Analysis (Offered in AY 2016 - 2017 T1)
This course teaches students how to systematically analyse complex policy problems and conduct policy design and formulation to address long-term challenges. The skillset students acquire in this course is generic in nature which allows them to apply these tools to different domains (e.g. Transport, Environment, Energy, Health, etc.) to solve policy problems. This makes this course crucial for policy analysts, strategists, strategic planners, programme assessors and evaluators, and professionals with functions that require long-horizon thinking and decision-making such as consultants, managers, engineers and politicians and policy makers. Relevant theories and techniques and their limitations will be covered. Some of these topics covered in the course for analysis of policy problems and designing of policy solutions are: wicked problems, actor analysis, policy networks, system mapping, problem formulation and definition of goals, objectives, and decision making criteria, information gathering, generation of a library of policy measures, analysis and selection of policy measures, multi-criteria decision making, generation of alternative solutions, and analysis of the trade-offs of the alternative policies.
PPPM 107 Sustainable Cities (Offered in AY 2016 - 2017 T1)
This course will introduce the concept of sustainable development and it’s pillars of environment, society, economy and technology to the students and will review innovative tools and strategic approaches that can help us in achieving sustainability in cities. In this course we will cover relevant theories and techniques and explore examples of innovative practices in the built environment. Some of these topics are: principles of sustainable development, the ecological footprint, climate change and the urban environment, and sustainability of infrastructure systems (e.g. water, energy, transport, waste) etc. We will look at sustainability in Cities with an analytical lens. The aim of the course is to equip the students with a solid understanding of sustainable development and various aspects of sustainability in cities and analytical thinking approaches that can aid them in devising smart policy solutions and approaches to sustainably manage, maintain and improve our urban environment.
PPPM 202 Sustainable Development and Urbanism
This course will introduce the concept of sustainable development and it’s pillars of environment, society, economy and technology to the students and will review innovative tools and strategic approaches that can help us in achieving sustainability in cities. In this course we will cover relevant theories and techniques and explore examples of innovative practices in the built environment. Some of these topics are: principles of sustainable development, the ecological footprint, climate change and the urban environment, and sustainability of infrastructure systems (e.g. water, energy, transport, waste) etc. We will look at sustainable development with an analytical lens, using the scientific method rather than the prevalent emotional cases and appeals that don’t add up or work in the real world. Ultimately with this knowledge this course aims to equip the students with a solid understanding of sustainable development and urbanism and analytical thinking approaches that can aid them in devising smart policy solutions and approaches to sustainably manage, maintain and improve our urban environment.
PPPM 203 Education Policy – A Global Perspective
This course focuses on issues related to developing and improving the quality of education systems around the world. It examines public policies addressing the quantity and quality of formal schooling, with a particular focus on the primary and secondary levels of education across developing and industrialized nations. The issues it covers include compulsory education, child labor, public and private schooling and the intersection of education with capitalism, consumerism, democracy, diversity, and nationalism. The course also looks at debates on educational curriculum and pedagogy and how they relate to culture and values. It explores problems of educational inequality across gender, race, and socio-economic classes and discusses the role of international organizations (IOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in supporting education. The course material focuses on a variety of case studies from Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and North America.
PPPM 301 Public Policy Task Force
A highly fieldwork intensive module which involves students going down to the field. Loads of data collection, from which students will learn to draw links and conceptualise the considerations which led to formulation of the policy