Faculty of Social Sciences

Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honours) in Social Policy

The Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honours) in Social Policy is a four-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	51 units
II)	Honours Project	6 units
III)	Policy Specialization Electives	9 units
IV)	General Education	38 units
V)	Free Electives	24 units
		───────
		128 units

Requirements

Students are required to complete 51 units of major core courses in social policy and 9 units of policy specialization electives. Associate Degree or Higher Diploma graduates 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 “Social Policy” from the AD programme at CIE.

I.	Social Policy in General			51 units
	SOPY	3005	Diversity & Social Structure of Modern States	3 units
	SOPY	3015	Individual, State & Society	3 units
	SOPY	3025	Principles & Theories of Social Policy	3 units
	SOPY	3035	Social Justice & Social Movements	3 units
	SOPY	3045	Social Research	3 units
	SOPY	3055	Communications & Networking of the Non-profit Making Organizations	3 units
	SOPY	3065	Culture & Social Policy	3 units
	SOPY	3075	Globalization & Social Policy	3 units
	SOPY	3085	Policy Processes & Politics	3 units
	SOPY	3095	Social Policy in Chinese Societies	3 units
	SOPY	4005	Policy Analysis & Evaluation	3 units
	SOPY	4015	Social Enterprises & the Third Sector	3 units
	SOPY	4025	Technology, Social Changes & Quality of Life	3 units
	SOPY	4035	Welfare Regimes in the Greater China Region	3 units
	SOPY	4045	Administration in Non-profit Making Organizations	3 units
	SOPY	4055	Challenges of Sustainable Development	3 units
	SOPY	4065	Comparative Social Policy	3 units

II.	Honours Project			6 units
	SOPY	4008-9	Honours Project	6 units

III.	Policy Specialization Electives			9 units
	Option A: Youth Policy Specialization
	SOPY	4105	Youth & Citizenship	3 units
	SOPY	4115	Youth in Transition, Employment & Education	3 units
	SOPY	4125	Gender, Identity & Young People	3 units
	Option B: Social Care & Protection Policy Specialization
	SOPY	4205	Poverty & Social Exclusion	3 units
	SOPY	4215	Pension & Retirement Protection	3 units
	SOPY	4225	Public Health Care Systems	3 units

IV.	General Education			38 units

V.	Free Electives			24 units
				──────
				128 units