Lingnan University Co-organises International Symposium on Social Policy and Urban Governance

18 Sep 2015

 
Lingnan University today (18 September) co-organised the international symposium on “Managing Rapid Social and Economic Changes: International Responses and Urban Governance” together with the School of Government of the Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU), Department of Asian and Policy Studies of the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) and Institute for Policy Research of the University of Bath, UK.  The Symposium provided a platform for experts and scholars to discuss, share and exchange regional and international perspectives on social policy and urban governance in response to the challenges arising from rapid development and changes.
 

 
The Symposium was held at SYSU, with renowned experts and scholars gathered to discuss on a range of topics including social development and policy making in the UK, changing of labour needs and education in Mainland China, as well as social policy and governance in Hong Kong.
 
Prof Ngok King-lun from the School of Government of SYSU pointed out in his welcome address at the Symposium’s opening ceremony that “facing the global challenges arising from rapid social and economic changes, scholars and policy makers see the need for innovations in policy response and urban governance for sustainable development.”

 
 
In his opening remarks, Prof Joshua Mok Ka-ho, Vice-President and Chair Professor of Comparative Policy, Lingnan University stated that “the symposium aims to pool together efforts of scholars from the four institutions to critically examine the new challenges and investigate the appropriateness and effectiveness of social policy and urban governance.” He also expected that collaboration of the institutions will create positive impacts on academic and teaching activities.
 
On the other hand, Dr Louise Brown of the University of Bath pointed out the importance of international perspective on research of social policy and urban governance, while Dr Alfred Wu Muluan, Assistant Professor of the Department of Asian and Policy Studies of HKIEd was confident that the Symposium would certainly stimulate discussions on new approaches for policy development and urban governance by sharing of scholarly insights.
 

 
During the discussion sessions, speakers from the four institutions shared their distinctive insights on social development, social policy, education, elderly care, social insurance and migration.  Lingnan University’s Prof Joshua Mok Ka-ho shared his recent research on “Massification of Higher Education, Skill Mismatch in Labor Market and the Reforms on Vocational Higher Education”, Prof Alfred Chan Cheung-ming, Chair Professor of Social Gerontology shared his research on policy-making for Hong Kong’s elderly services programme plan, while Prof Esra Burak Ho, Assistant Professor of the Department of Sociology and Social Policy presented her study on “The Effect of Performance, Effort, and Context on Fair Pay at the Top”.  University of Bath’s Dr Louise Brown presented a study on development and innovation across international boundaries, while Prof Graham Room discussed three paradigms of policy making.  SYSU’s Prof Ngok King-lun discussed the major social policy challenges in contemporary China.  HKIEd’s Dr Alfred Wu Muluan used evidence from Hong Kong to examine public attitudes toward income redistribution, while Dr Fox Hu Zhiyong questioned whether economic repositioning and the changing politics of migrants will drive Beijing towards a revanchist city.
 
 

Postgraduate students from Lingnan University, SYSU and HKIEd also attended the symposium and joined the in-depth discussions with the speakers, which provided them an opportunity to enrich their learning experiences, develop their global insights, and prompt their international and intercultural understanding.