Public policy education in Asia: convergence and divergence

ABSTRACT

Asia’s global rise highlights a host of policy opportunities and challenges. Historically, the region’s developmentalist governments were single-minded of purpose, aiming principally for rapid economic growth. As growth stabilized and economies matured, a variety of other concerns – environmental, social, and political, among others – began to warrant policy intervention. Public administrators in Asia now operate in a setting of increasing complexity amidst an array of conflicting policy mandates. Accordingly, policy education and training are as crucial to Asia’s continued rise as they were in the early stages of emergence decades ago. This article and the special issue it introduces address several key elements characterizing the rise of policy education in Asia, including how policy educational practices have converged and diverged, how they have responded to situational mandates, and how they are now asserting a unique disciplinary identity.

KEYWORDS:

• Public policy
• higher education
• Asia
• developmentalism
• globalization

Acknowledgment

I thank Professor Darryl Jarvis, who made substantial contributions to the drafting of this article and to the organization of this special issue.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Examples are the Asia-Pacific Public Policy Network (founded in 2016), India Public Policy Network (2018), and Philippine Public Policy Network (2019).

2. Examples are the Journal of Asian Public Policy (founded in 2008) and Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies journal (2014).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kris Hartley

Kris Hartley is Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Program Leader of the Masters of Social Sciences in Development Studies in the Department of Public and International Affairs at City University of Hong Kong. He researches global-to-local policy transfer in the application of technology to sustainability transitions, and has published books with Cambridge University Press and Routledge Press. He has previously been a Fulbright U.S. Scholar (2020) and has held faculty appointments at Cornell University, University of Melbourne, Education University of Hong Kong, Vietnam National University, and Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan. Kris serves as an Associate Editor for Policy and Society journal, Assistant Editor for Policy Design and Practice journal, and Policy Briefs Editor for Water International journal (International Water Resources Association). Kris holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from the National University of Singapore (Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy), a Master of City Planning from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master of Business Administration from Baylor University.