GCAP3056
Taking a Stand: Turning Research Insights into Policy Recommendations
Community-based learning and engage in making policy recommendations
GCAP 3056 Taking a Stand: Turning Research Insights into Policy Recommendations is an award-winning General Education capstone course co-developed and co-taught by Dr Simon Wang at the Language Centre and Dr Benedict Rowlett at the Department of English. It empowers students to conduct research on policies and programmes of the Hong Kong government and share their insights by writing in the South China Morning Post letters column, thereby joining the conversation on how to address pressing social issues facing our society and hold the government accountable.
Meetings with the government staff and lawmakers
Students are encouraged to set up meetings with government staff and Legislative Council members to discuss matters they have studied in the course. A number of meetings have been held with government officials and lawmakers for students taking this course or working on related projects to share their views on various policy issues.
Field trips
Students taking the course participate in a field trip to a government project site to learn about the government’s work and gain direct and fresh experience.
Publications
Students taking the course are expected to submit letters to the editor to the South China Morning Post and present their arguments about public policy issues based on their research. Since the course was first offered in Fall 2000, more than 60 letters have been published with the acceptance rate nearly 100% reflecting the high quality of students’ writing and research recognized by the SCMP editors. The collection of letters published by teachers and students can be found by clicking the newspaper clips.
Seminars
Each semester we feature speakers from a wide range of backgrounds to deliver Taking a Stand seminars and share with the students insights on various policy issues. Most updated information about the seminars can be found by clicking the posters.
GE and Faculty Teaching Awards
The impact of this course in guiding students to research on policy issues and join the conversations on public affairs has been recognized by the university through the General Education teaching award and Arts Faculty Award for Outstanding Performance (team teaching).
