PROMOTING PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH IN HONG KONG

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PROMOTING PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH IN HONG KONGS
HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS Potentials,
Possibilities and Policies

• Peter P. Yuen
• Public Policy Research Institute
• The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

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Potentials Possibilities

• University is a suitable home for public policy
  research
• Independence
• Possesses wide range of expertise
• credibility

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Independence

• Multiple sources of funding
• Research Grants from research bodies
• Researchers can choose their own research topics
• Financial support from university
• Need not rely on consultancies for survival
• Consultancies
• Applied, useful projects, but sponsor driven
• Can pick and choose

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Expertise

• Multidisciplinary approach
• Beyond public administration/political science
• Only universities have the wide range of
  expertise in specific areas
• Health care, logistics, land use, built
  environment, environmental protection, education,
  transport, tourism, social welfare etc

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Problems

• UGC funding is tied mainly to undergraduate
  teaching
• difficult for public policy research units to
  maintain a critical mass
• Postgraduate teaching are self-financing
• Difficult to support research
• Research studentships in short supply

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Problems

• Consultancy funds are viewed as less prestigious
  than GRFs
• Consultancy output not counted as research output
• Data often not allowed to be use for journal
  publications