Global Consultants: Policymaking for Social Impact

The Common Core facilitated an undergraduate policy consultancy as a co-curricular programme in collaboration with the University of Birmingham (UoB) in the UK, from 21 March to 30 April 2022 (6 weeks). Student teams from UoB’s LANS (Liberal Arts and Natural Sciences) From Research To Policy II course formulated policy for a social issue important to the Birmingham area, which involved conducting a research process–articulating a problem, ideating a solution, devising a methodology, collecting data, and analysis, discussion and presentation.

HKU undergraduate students provided feedback for the UoB student projects about how their projects might be enhanced by additional perspectives from Hong Kong and Asia. As part of this work, HKU students were introduced to social policy analysis, practice applying basic analytical frameworks to case studies, and interact with each other, facilitators, and the UoB students.

The programme schedule was as follows:

Thu 24 March 2022, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Thu 31 March 2022, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Thu 07 April 2022, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Thu 14 April 2022, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Thu 21 April 2022, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Thu 28 April 2022, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm

Students were required to invest at least 21 hours of total work. HKU students who successfully complete the project will be paid a modest stipend. The project was coordinated by Dr Jack Tsao and co-taught by Dr Jack Tsao and Dr Micheal Rivera.