BC Priorities Project

 

The “BC Priorities Project” is a research and educational collaboration between the Government of British Columbia’s Knowledge and Information Services (KIS) Branch and the School of Public Policy. The goals of the project are to enhance the learning outcomes of our students by giving them the opportunity to work on issues of concern to the BC government, and enhance the research capacity across the provincial government. Each year our first-year cohort is given topics from different provincial government agencies that are of long-term interest to the government. Students, in teams, investigate the problems over the two semesters of their Introduction to Policy Analysis I and II courses (MPP 800 and 807). The program is structured to match students’ interests with government needs in evidence-based research and policy analysis. In workshops held in Victoria at the end of the second semester, each student team delivers a discussion paper and presents in person its work to members of the Public Service.

For the last three years, the provincial government has arranged with the SFU School of Public Policy to tackle six 
medium-term policy problems. At the beginning of the school year, the government chooses the problems; by the end 
of the school year, in April, the first-year cohort has completed written reports and presents “solutions” to officials in 
Victoria. 
As in years past, the first-year cohort stumbled one early April morning onto a bus at Harbour Centre and headed to 
Victoria. Later in the day, students presented their collective wisdom on this year’s set of policy problems: 
*designing high-level indicators of performance of the justice system; 
*encouraging new immigrants to choose a community other than Vancouver; 
*persuading MLAs to address the fact that BC has the most severe over-representation of rural and  
 underrepresentation of urban voters of any provincial legislature; 
*linking children to nature in the context of urban living and competition from video games; 
*assessing the value of the health ministry’s publication, Baby’s Best Chance – getting health information to 
 new parents;
*disposing of that old cell phone – provincial policies for environmental disposal of electronic waste. 
There remains fine-tuning for both the School and government to get maximum benefit from this arrangement, but it 
has become an effective “capstone practice” for the first-year students. Their written reports and oral presentations 
to relevant provincial officials are providing students with useful real-world pr

 

For the last three years, the provincial government has arranged with the SFU School of Public Policy to tackle six medium-term policy problems. At the beginning of the school year, the government chooses the problems; by the end of the school year, in April, the first-year cohort has completed written reports and presents “solutions” to officials in Victoria. As in years past, the first-year cohort stumbled one early April morning onto a bus at Harbour Centre and headed to Victoria. Later in the day, students presented their collective wisdom on this year’s set of policy problems:

  • designing high-level indicators of performance of the justice system; 
  • encouraging new immigrants to choose a community other than Vancouver; 
  • persuading MLAs to address the fact that BC has the most severe over-representation of rural and underrepresentation of urban         voters of any provincial legislature; 
  • linking children to nature in the context of urban living and competition from video games; 
  • assessing the value of the health ministry’s publication, Baby’s Best Chance – getting health information to  new parents;
  • disposing of that old cell phone – provincial policies for environmental disposal of electronic waste. 

 

There remains fine-tuning for both the School and government to get maximum benefit from this arrangement, but it has become an effective “capstone practice” for the first-year students. Their written reports and oral presentations to relevant provincial officials are providing students with useful real-world practice in analysis, and are providing the government with some new ideas on some medium-term policy problems.

For the discussion papers from the 2011, 2010 and 2009 symposiums click here