Мэдээ

Last week Dr. Julian Dierkes, associate professor of the University of British Columbia worked as a guest professor at our school.

On May 12, Dr. Dierkes gave an interesting talk on “Mongolia in International Indices” for undergraduate and graduate students, which traced the rise in the use of such indices and then discussed their applicability to Mongolia, especially in light of recent attention to Mongolia’s ranking in indices such as V-Dem and the Corruption Perception Index. The discussion was focused on the use, strengths and weaknesses of such indices using Mongolia as an example. For instance, Freedom House used only Dr.Dierkes’ evaluation of Mongolia in its last indices, while V-Dem usually asks a dozen experts to evaluate a particular country.

Later that day, Dr. Dierkes talked about “Experiential Learning in Policy Education” to SIRPA faculty. As professional education for policy professions has been growing, increasing attention has been paid to experiential learning as a pedagogical model to prepare Master’s students for policy careers. Dr. Dierkes discussed about the development of an experiential capstone in UBC’s Master of Public Policy and Global Affairs. The capstone project has been offered since 2015 and it is a 6 credits course, required by all students, which mimics a professional consulting project. Clients are an essential component that makes experience “real” to students. Clients willing to invest attention, demand response in return for free project of 1,500 consulting hours, roughly similar to $50,000 contract. They have a diverse pool of international (IOM Mongolia, UNICEF Dominican Republic, Canada-ASEAN Business Council) and domestic (Global Affairs Canada, CSIS, DND, Wildlife Canada, BC Min of Mines, BC Climate Secretariat, Fairtrade Canada, City of Vancouver, Squamish Nation, Greentech Consultants) clients.

In future, Dr. Dierkes would like to have parallel projects at SPPGA and SIRPA to address a common topic for a common client in Mongolia with different aspects. He expects concrete collaboration during fieldwork and coordination of policy deliverables.

Another important topic that Dr. Dierkes addressed during his talk with SIRPA faculty was “Internal Quality Assurance Processes at UBC”. SIRPA faculty received useful information on Quality Assurance via External Reviews. Dr.Dierkes shared that although Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration provides voluntary accreditation, SPPGA has chosen not to seek this as benefits are unclear.

Oyunsuren Damdinsuren, Senior Lecturer, SIRP