Faculty of Social Sciences

Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honours) in Social Policy

The Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honours) in Social Policy is a three-year full-time programme primarily for associate degree graduates who wish to acquire necessary knowledge, values and skills in policy studies. We believe that the state has the basic, essential obligations to plan, finance and provide goods, services and opportunities to fulfil social and national needs, enhance social qualities, social justice and equity. Social policies are therefore not merely responses to claims of partisans or interest groups, nor should be alternatives solutions to problems or challenges with structural factors. Social policies can champion for the long-term wellness and development for individuals, cohesion and mutual support among social groups and for a balance of development in the society. Administrators or managers of public and community services, other than efficient and effective operators, can also be advocates for positive changes, as well as the change agents for informal, decentralized, distributive and integrated process with due respect to citizen participation and empowerment.

More specifically, this programme aims to:

1.	Develop students’ understanding and ability to participate in the making and evaluation of social policies in local, regional and international contexts. Emphases will be placed on understanding problems of social injustice and the unequal distribution of social resources in the Greater China Region.
2.	Develop students’ understanding of diverse needs and the significance of social development through the studies of interface and relationships between social policies and other social science disciplines.
3.	Develop students’ appreciation of and the ability to utilize social research as an integral component of social policy studies.
4.	Develop students’ appreciation of and ability to utilize macro-intervention methods and knowledge to critically analyze the changing relationship between individual and the state in the local, regional and international contexts.
5.	Develop students’ sensitivity to social injustice and inequality as a result of specific social structures, emergences of social changes and the promotion of general wellness of human beings in the contemporary society.
6.	Develop the understanding of the contents and impacts of specific social policies as well as the rights and needs of special social groups such as the young and older people in the society.

Most of courses are taught by a combination of lecture-discussions with relevant field experiences such as site-visits, observations, and case studies.

The structure of the curriculum is as follows:

I)	Social Policy in General	54 units
II)	Policy Specialization Electives	9 units
III)	Complementary Studies Courses	36 units
		───────
		99 units

Requirements

Students are required to complete 54 units of major core courses in social policy and 9 units of policy specialization electives. Associate Degree or Higher Diploma graduates in non social science disciplines may be required to take additional units in social sciences or general education courses to make up for programme prerequisite and complementary studies requirements. Students who have not taken relevant social science subjects in their prior studies may be required to take an additional course “Society and Social Policy” from the AD programme at CIE.

I.	Social Policy in General			54 units
	SOPO	2110	Principles & Theories of Social Policy	3 units
	SOPO	2120	Individual, State & Society	3 units
	SOPO	2130	Diversity & Social Structure of Modern States	3 units
	SOPO	2140	Social Research	3 units
	SOPO	2150	Social Justice & Social Movements	3 units
	SOPO	2210	Culture & Social Policy	3 units
	SOPO	2220	Social Policy in Chinese Societies	3 units
	SOPO	2230	Policy Processes & Politics	3 units
	SOPO	2240	Globalization & Social Policy	3 units
	SOPO	2250	Communications & Networking of the Non-profit Making Organizations	3 units
	SOPO	3110	Social Enterprises & the Third Sector	3 units
	SOPO	3120	Welfare Regimes in the Greater China Region	3 units
	SOPO	3130	Technology, Social Changes & Quality of Life	3 units
	SOPO	3140	Policy Analysis & Evaluation	3 units
	SOPO	3210	Challenges of Sustainable Development	3 units
	SOPO	3220	Comparative Social Policy	3 units
	SOPO	3230	Administration in Non-profit Making Organizations	3 units
	SOPO	3591-2	Honours Project	3 units

II.	Policy Specialization Electives			9 units
	Option A: Youth Policy Specialization
	SOPO	3310	Youth & Citizenship	3 units
	SOPO	3320	Youth in Transition, Employment & Education	3 units
	SOPO	3330	Gender, Identity & Young People	3 units
	Option B: Social Care & Protection Policy Specialization
	SOPO	3410	Poverty & Social Exclusion	3 units
	SOPO	3420	Pension & Retirement Protection	3 units
	SOPO	3430	Public Health Care Systems	3 units

III.	Complementary Studies Courses			36 units
	Core Requirements (15 units)
	English Language
	Chinese Language
	Values and the Meaning of Life
	Information Management Technology
	Physical Education
	University Life

	Distribution Requirements (21 units)
	Any two courses outside Social Sciences, of which one must be Science course			6 units
	Any two non-major/option courses			6 units
	Free elective courses			9 units
				──────
				99 units