F1GD 5730 - Practitioners' Approach to Social Policy Reform

***UPDATED for 2025/26***

Social policy covers key topics in public policy and spends plurality of public resources. There is a widespread agreement that social policy reforms are needed in most countries - to grapple with challenges such as demographic change, digitalisation, migration, inequality and fiscal pressure.

Led by two former senior and junior ministers with extensive international experience, the course looks at social policy reforms from a practitioners' point of view and provides students insight and training in the actual practice, giving them hands-on training in how actual change happens.

The course combines lectures on key trends and frameworks in social policy reform, case studies on specific reforms and a semester-long practical project that includes both individual and group work.

Learning Outcomes

• Knowledge to understand the key social policy issues in developed countries and frameworks in which to think about them
• Knowledge to understand how global megatrends affect welfare states
• Knowledge to understand the real world of policy making

Professional Skills

• Skill to extract, interpret and analyze social policy information in both a national and a comparative setting
• Skill to present, defend and discuss policy briefing
• Skill to work in a team to compare and evaluate different policies across borders

None.

Lecture sessions have ample time for Q&A. Specific feedback will be provided:

• Session 6: Individual student presentation (a short policy brief on the objectives and results of the selected reform) and feedback
• Session 8 and 10: Student group preliminary presentation + feedback (focusing on comparative preliminary analysis of reform objectives and results)
• Session 11 and 12: Final version of presentations and posters and instructor feedback.

• In Class Presence: 4 hours a week / 24 hours a semester
• Reading and Preparation for Class: on average 4 hours a week / 48 hours a semester
• Research and Preparation for Group Work: 54 hours a semester
• Research and Writing for Individual Assessments: 24 hours a semester