Policy Ideas in Focus: Framing Policy Problems
PostgraduateMAQ-SOCX80752025
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- Study method
- 100% online
- Assessments
- 100% online
- Entry requirements
- Part of a degree
- Duration
- 13 weeks
- Start dates
- 24 Feb 2025
- Loan available
- FEE-HELP available
Policy Ideas in Focus: Framing Policy Problems
About this subject
On successful completion, you will be able to
- Demonstrate understanding of theory and debates about the role of ideas in shaping policy.
- Demonstrate understanding of the history, contours and impacts of some important policy ideas.
- Develop a critical appreciation of alternative ways policy problems can be framed.
- Apply theoretical and substantive knowledge to analyse policy documents.
- Communicate research findings and views accurately and effectively using a variety of written techniques.
- A week-by-week guide to the topics you will explore in this subject will be provided in your study materials.
Policies embody ideas about what governments can and should do, and how. These ideas 'frame' the problems policies address and how those problems will be solved. Policy ideas vary between policy domains and between countries and they change over time. Policy ideas are mobilised and contested by policy actors seeking changes that align with their own interests or those of their constituencies. When new ideas enter the policy process, they may offer genuinely novel solutions to old problems or renew the attractiveness of discarded approaches. New ideas can also function as solutions in search of problems. In this unit, students study policy documents and research resources to gain a critical understanding of how ideas can frame the definition of policy problems and their solutions. Because policy ideas travel, the unit considers the mechanisms and actors involved in what researchers call policy transfer or policy mobilities. The unit is taught as a series of modules, each exploring the history, contours and impacts of one of a broad-ranging set of ideas that has come into public and social policy in recent decades. Ideas in focus may include a subset of: brain and mind sciences, New Public Management, big data and governance by algorithm, social investment and asset-based social policy, partnership, sustainability, resilience, and well-being.
- online participation (10%)
- Policy idea analysis (30%)
- Policy idea analysis (30%)
- Policy theory analysis (30%)
For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).
This research-intensive university in north-western Sydney offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. With over 44,000 current students, Macquarie has a strong reputation for welcoming international students and embracing flexible and convenient study options, including its partnership with Open Universities Australia.
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- 10
Entry requirements
Part of a degree
To enrol in this subject you must be accepted into one of the following degrees:
Core
- MAQ-PSP-MAS-2025 - Master of Public and Social Policy
Prior study
You must either have successfully completed the following subject(s) before starting this subject, or enrol in the following subject(s) to study at the same time or prior to this subject:
one of
Others
Admission to MPSP or MPASR or GradCertPASR or GradDipPASR (OUA)
NCCW (2020 and onwards) SOCI8075 Policy Ideas in Focus: Framing Policy Problems
Co-requisite: POIX8090 or SOCX8080
Additional requirements
- Other requirements - Students who have an Academic Standing of Suspension or Exclusion under Macquarie University's Academic Progression Policy are not permitted to enrol in OUA units offered by Macquarie University. Students with an Academic Standing of Suspension or Exclusion who have enrolled in units through OUA will be withdrawn.
Study load
- 0.125 EFTSL
- This is in the range of 10 to 12 hours of study each week.
Equivalent full time study load (EFTSL) is one way to calculate your study load. One (1.0) EFTSL is equivalent to a full-time study load for one year.
Find out more information on Commonwealth Loans to understand what this means to your eligibility for financial support.
Related degrees
Once you’ve completed this subject it can be credited towards one of the following courses
Master of Public and Social Policy
PostgraduateMAQ-PSP-MAS