CONFERENCES AND EVENTS 23 External Review of the Master of Public Policy (MPP) Program On 10 and 11 August 2023, our MPP program underwent its rst external review. The panel members consisted of Prof. So Young Kim, Professor of the Graduate School of Science and Technology at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST); Dr. Sean McMinn, Director of Centre for Education Innovation, HKUST; and Mr. Justin Hin Ching Ng, ESG Strategy and Sustainability Consultant and alumnus of PPOL’s MPP program in 2021. Professor Huamin Qu, Dean of the Academy of Interdisciplinary Studies, Prof. Masaru Yarime, and Prof. Pengyu Zhu, co-directors of the MPP program, attended the external review. The review panel recognized the achievements of the MPP program and gave constructive comments about the program; the scope of the review covered curricula and syllabi management, the program’s linkage with science and technology, technical knowledge and expertise, gradings and assessment, career advising and development, and students’ achievements relative to international benchmarking. The result of the review indicates strong evidence that the program has grown and adapted since its launch in 2018-19, and being the only 2-year taught master’s program in Hong Kong, it has positioned its niche very well, as shown by an increase in applications for almost 6 folds (141 to 808 across 5 years). Benchmarking was conducted effectively to ensure the quality of the program relative to similar courses offered by other universities. The program has successfully recruited internationally competitive faculty members by identifying the best talents across various backgrounds and diversi ed student populations (the dominant share of Chinese mainland students has changed from 97% to 88% over 5 years). The courses offered by the MPP program are marked with a clear set of grading criteria and rubrics and an effective and prompt feedback mechanism; the courses also make effective use of the case-based approach that connects principles and theories to relevant real-world initiatives. Looking ahead, the MPP program will continue to offer students of diverse backgrounds with interdisciplinary learning and thinking skills by creating more systematic linkage with science and technology programs making use of the strong S&T education and research of HKUST. And for reputational and feedback reasons, the MPP program will carefully monitor the careers and performance of its graduates. With the rise of ChatGPT and generative AI, professors of PPOL will need to state clearly their preference in allocating ChatGPT use within their respective syllabi and, at the same time, there will be more emphasis on students’ conceptual, procedural, metacognitive knowledge and higher-order thinking in courses and assessments.
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