Undergraduate Courses 2023-24

Undergraduate courses marked with [BLD] or [SPO] may be offered in the mode of blended learning or self-paced online delivery respectively, subject to different offerings. Students should check the delivery mode of the class section before registration.

• PPOL 2000

  Special Topics in Public Policy

  1-4 Credit(s)
  Description

  Selected topics of current interest in public policy studies. The course aims to broaden students' exposure to a broad range of topics within the public policy discipline. The course may be repeated for credit, if the topics studied are different. Graded letter grade or P/F subject to different offerings. Instructor's approval is required for enrollment in the course.
• PPOL 2110

  Science, Technology and Society in China

  3 Credit(s)
  Previous Course Code(s)

  CORE 2940

  Prerequisite(s)

  a passing letter grade in LANG 1401 OR LANG 1402 OR LANG 1403 OR LANG 1404 OR LANG 1002 (prior to 2022-23)

  Mode of Delivery

  [BLD] Blended learning

  Description

  This course aims to cultivate students’ systematic and critical thinking about science, technology, innovation, and society, especially in light of the transition from traditional China to contemporary China. Differing from the usual courses focusing on this subject, this course will take a social and critical approach, enabling students to understand and analyze the social, political, and cultural preconditions and impacts of scientific and technological development. By the end of the course, students should understand the significance of the social, cultural, and political preconditions underlying scientific and technological innovations and be able to gauge the impact of those innovations. They should also be able to systematically analyze the factors that make innovation significant and use this analysis to critically examine the development of science and technology over the course of China’s history.
• PPOL 3000

  Special Topics in Public Policy

  1-4 Credit(s)
  Description

  Selected topics of current interest in public policy studies. The course aims to provide students with a more in-depth knowledge of a broad range of topics within the public policy discipline. The course may be repeated for credit, if the topics studied are different. Graded letter grade or P/F subject to different offerings. Instructor's approval is required for enrollment in the course.
• PPOL 3210

  Energy Policy

  3 Credit(s)
  Description

  This course addresses two fundamental questions about energy policy: Why and how do governments intervene in energy markets? What do we know about the relationships between government decisions and the economic and environmental performance of energy systems? The class begins with an overview of energy-related challenges confronted by policymakers: climate change, energy poverty, the competition for natural resources, and barriers to sustainable energy use and innovation needs. Policy types are introduced through the lens of energy technologies and their historial/ ongoing development. We examine the role of data, models, and uncertainties in policy decisions. The primary focus of the course is international.
• PPOL 3800

  Ethics, Emerging Technologies and Public Policy

  3 Credit(s)
  Alternate code(s)

  SOSC 3800

  Description

  This course studies the ethical dimensions of emerging technologies and public policy. The overarching theme is to explore the moral debate surrounding some pressing policy issues in emerging technologies nowadays. The first part introduces the essential moral concepts and theories for general reasoning in ethics and public policy. The second part discusses a selection of disputed policy issues in emerging technologies through the application of moral concepts and theories. By the end of the course, students will benefit with the knowledge and skills necessary for policy argumentation from the perspective of ethics.
• PPOL 4000

  Special Topics in Public Policy

  1-4 Credit(s)
  Description

  Selected topics of current interest in public policy studies. The course aims to provide students the advanced knowledge for a broad range of topics within the public policy discipline. The course may be repeated for credit, if the topics studied are different. Graded letter grade or P/F subject to different offerings. Instructor's approval is required for enrollment in the course.