Faculty of Social Sciences

Master of Public Administration

Programme Director: Prof Patrick W C Lau

This is a part-time taught postgraduate programme offered by the Faculty of Social Sciences and School of Business with support from the School of Communication, Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Beijing and the Pace University (PU), New York.

As China continues its rapid development, government officials, civil servants and administrators in both public and business sectors realize the need for better understanding in policy and public affairs at local, national and international levels. The MPA programme is offered by three facilities at HKBU along with CASS and PU. HKBU has well-recognized faculty research projects and research centres working in areas related to several aspects of government policy and public affairs. It is also a university emphasizing East-West interaction. A comparative element in most of the courses enhances the uniqueness of the programme and its usefulness to both public and private sectors. CASS’s expertise in public affairs and law practice in the mainland is also invaluable.

The programme is designed to accomplish the following objectives:

1.	To sharpen students’ understanding of public administration in Hong Kong, the mainland and also from a comparative and global perspective;
2.	To advance students’ knowledge of public affairs in relation to law and administration;
3.	To equip students with knowledge in the management of human resources, finance, sport and public amenities; and
4.	To enable students to become reflective and critical administrators with the ability to assess and respond to the changing needs of society.

The structure of the curriculum is as follows:

I)	Core Courses	24 units
II)	Elective Courses	6 units
		───────
		30 units

Requirements

This is a 5-semester programme with a summer term and students are expected to enrol in 2 courses in every semester. In order to graduate, students have to take a total of 30 units, i.e. 10 courses.

I.	Core Courses			24 units
	FIN	7070	Finance & Accounting for the Public Sector	3 units
	MGNT	7080	Managing People in the Public Sector	3 units
	POLS	7020	E-Government	3 units
	POLS	7030	Globalization & the World Trade Organization	3 units
	POLS	7040	Law & Public Affairs	3 units
	POLS	7050	Public Administration	3 units
	POLS	7060	Research Methods for Public Administration Practitioners	3 units
	POLS	7070	Project	3 units

II.	Elective Courses			6 units
	Two of the following courses:
	COMM	7510	Public Administration & the Media	3 units
	ECON	7080	Economics of Public Policy	3 units
	P.E.	7010	Programme & Event Planning & Management	3 units
				──────
				30 units