Policymaking Skills in Interaction: A Case Study of UN-Student Collaboration

Abstract

In Political Science, professional skills training usually takes place in extra-curricular career events or in the classroom, as part of learning activities, games and simulations. Rarely does it happen in direct interaction between students and global policy practitioners focused on applied career skills, real-world policymaking and assessment.

In response to this need, the UCL Co-Director of the MSc International Public Policy (IPP) and co-lecturer of the IPP core module designed a student paper competition in collaboration with the United Nations in Uzbekistan through its Aral Sea Trust Fund to enable direct engagement between IPP students and UN practitioners. The initiative focused on building essential career skills in international policymaking. Students received feedback on their policy papers from the UN Officer, participated in discussions on career opportunities, and learned how to transfer skills from UCL to the world of international policymaking. The case of the UN-IPP student collaboration is a prime example of how student knowledge and creative output can be mobilised to develop policy skills in direct student-practitioner interaction.

The Educational Challenge

Professional skills are important for higher education: employability is an essential metric of graduate success. In Political Science education and International Relations programs in particular, career skills training usually takes place in extra-curricular events such as lecture-format talks by external speakers. More recently, studies have pushed for incorporating career skills within experiential classroom activities such as games and simulations (Kitchen, 2022) and establishing student partnerships with local city governments (Baer and Haddad, 2022). Yet students need to broaden their horizon, exposure, and growth beyond the local limits. In some fields, like International Relations, this is not just desirable but essential. Rarely does professional skills training happen in direct debate between students and global diplomats to address the competences needed for real-world international policymaking.

To address this need, we entered into a Joint Declaration of Intent to partner with the United Nations in Uzbekistan through its Aral Sea Trust Fund, and collaborated with the staff to establish and lead a competency exchange initiative between UN practitioners and UCL students from the MSc programme in International Public Policy (IPP). We designed a policy paper competition addressing an environmental challenge of concern for the UN’s Aral Sea Trust Fund to design multilateral policy solutions.

The initiative mobilised existing student knowledge and work on policy papers to develop career skills that are essential in the world of global policymaking. Students received constructive feedback from the UN practitioner on policy papers and ideas, and how their papers could be put into practice or what elements were missing to make them actionable in international fora. As a result, students developed applied professional skills in international politics, built their confidence in pursuing previously unfamiliar career options and learned how to transfer knowledge into the practice of policymaking.

Learning objectives: identifying the need for UN-IPP student collaboration

The initiative was part of the core IPP course and directly addressed its learning objectives to ensure optimal alignment between assessment, teaching and learning goals. We designed the structure of the MSc IPP course, its learning objectives and assessment drawing on the work of Biggs (1996), namely the principle of constructive alignment. This involved integrating learning activities and assessment tasks in a way that directly addresses the intended learning outcomes (LOs) (see Wang et al., 2012). In brief, the main LOs included being able to:

1. Understand, analyse, and think critically about the key challenges, actors, and institutions of contemporary international public policy.
2. Think through the incentives and constraints of policymakers.
3. Develop practical skills to effectively participate in international public policy. This includes researching and writing a country position paper and proposing solutions to a global policy problem.

LO1 and LO2 were addressed and achieved through regular classroom discussions, activities, and a final assessment task. However, the successful achievement of LO3 – developing practical skills in international policymaking – required a different approach. Generic skills and knowledge in international politics constitute attractive graduate attributes but are insufficient for strong student employability (Bridgstock, 2009). Achieving LO3 involved stretching beyond the skills trained and practiced in traditional lectures, seminars and assessed coursework as these learning formats proved limited for developing applied professional skills in global politics. To address this limitation and achieve complete alignment with the course learning objectives (LO3), we designed the UN-student collaborative initiative.

Methods and procedure

At the start of the initiative, we deepened collaboration with United Nations staff to jointly design a student paper competition aimed at maximising students’ practical skills needed in real-world employment. We collaborated with the UN to select an appropriate topic, gather background resources, and set criteria for the UN paper assessment. Assessment was a two-stage process. First, all papers were marked according to the regular assessment procedure with academic criteria set out as part of the UCL module (forming students’ module mark). Second, the strongest 8 student papers were assessed by the UN with policy criteria (e.g., feasibility, effectiveness).

We selected a current policy challenge that UN staff were actively trying to find solutions for: sustainability and adaptation in the Aral Sea region. We designed a background briefing document for students to provide them with a useful starting point and increase their knowledge base. This 8-page document included a description of the policy problem, past policy solutions, and a list of further resources for policy research. Students were also given a standard structure to use when writing the policy papers – a mid-term assessment task for the IPP course.

Detailed evaluation criteria were provided and discussed with students in advance, and they could also seek further advice and feedback by us on specific questions during the research and writing process. It was important to inform students that no one would be (dis)advantaged by choosing to participate in the opportunity of the UN paper competition. All IPP students received feedback on their individual policy paper from the academic team. As per the UN paper competition rules, we selected the best student papers from all submissions to the competition. Our UN partner then reviewed the selected papers and chose three winning submissions.

The initiative culminated in an award ceremony which we organised and co-hosted with the UN staff at UCL. The event was open to all IPP students. It was organised around two main objectives: policy paper discussion and an insight into career opportunities in international policy. First, the selected papers received individual feedback from the UN staff. UN staff had an interactive discussion with IPP students on the policy challenges in the Aral Sea Region and ways to address the issues from various country perspectives. UN staff commended the students for putting forward innovative proposals on how to address the issues identified through possible technology transfer and a one-health approach. This was followed by a constructive discussion on what aspects are important for policy papers vs academic papers, the specificity and evidence required, and actionable solutions provided.  In the second part of the event, UN staff discussed with students what skills are essential for employment in policy jobs, how to secure entry level jobs and fellowships, and what opportunities are currently available.

Results

Out of all students who participated in the competition (N=36/total module enrolment N=134) the papers selected for focused discussion (N=8) were outstanding in the innovation of proposed solutions to the environmental issue. They were commended by the UN officer for originality and feasibility. Students also learned what could make their proposals actionable in practice.

Student feedback (see Table 1) demonstrates that the UN-IPP student collaboration was a success with notable impact on students’ employability skills. Results are threefold. First, students gained direct experience on what works effectively in everyday international policy. The UN-student collaboration generated higher forms of learning including substantial development of applied research and professional skills in global policy. Second, students were optimistic about their future careers and showed high confidence in exploring career opportunities they had not previously considered. Third, the student-practitioner interaction produced deep appreciation of how to transfer theoretical knowledge into the practice of international policymaking.

Student feedback^[1]:

Table 1. Examples from student feedback on the UN-IPP student collaboration.

MSc student, International Public Policy (2022-23)	Question 1. How has the IPP-UN initiative impacted your confidence in your professional skills and/or career options in international policy?	Question 2. Thinking about your interaction with the UN Officer, has it made a difference to your learning?
Kexin Wang	The UN-IPP competition has successfully built my confidence in my professional skills in international policy. With the guidance of my professors, I was able to complete my academic writing from a more disciplined and professional perspective during the completion of my country position paper, which was very satisfying and helped me to improve my academic skills. I am very grateful to the professors for providing us with such an opportunity and this academic competition is very meaningful.	Through my interaction with the UN Officer in Uzbekistan, I was able to gain a clearer and more in-depth understanding of the practical aspects of the project (about the Aral Sea) than just from academic papers and materials. I was able to improve my academic skills and at the same time feel the wonderful practical meaning of a career related to my major. In addition to this, the interaction has helped me to discover more possibilities for my future career options and has helped me to choose my career direction. I am very grateful.
Anna Victoria Biezunska	The IPP-UN initiative boosted my confidence in my academic and professional skills in international policy, this has enabled me to enhance my research and critical thinking abilities while presenting solutions to international issues. Consequently, I am now exploring new opportunities and job prospects that I had not previously considered relating to international policy making.	My interaction with the UN Officer provided me with a unique opportunity to see first-hand the impact of policy proposals on an international scale and receive feedback on my policy ideas. Through the discussion, I gained specific insights into the strategies and approaches that are used in policy making, and I was able to see clearly how theoretical concepts from our modules relate to everyday international policy issues.
Anonymous	I felt more confident researching on countries and their policies, and I am considering future career options of working in a NGO/IGO.	She gave us really useful advice on how to improve our country position papers and which points we should be careful about. I thought that very helpful because she presented a different but pragmatic perspective which I haven’t considered before.

Summary

The case of UN-IPP student collaboration is a prime example of how student knowledge and creative output can be mobilised to develop policy skills in direct student-practitioner interaction. This initiative can be adapted to other employability partners, topics, and types of work, providing a useful example of student learning applicable to other fields of education.

References

Baer, M. and Haddad, H. N. 2022. Localizing the International Relations classroom: evaluation of academic partnerships with city government, International Studies Perspectives, 1-17.

Biggs, J. 1996. Enhancing teaching through constructive alignment, Higher Education, 32: 347–364.

Bridgstock, R. 2009. The graduate attributes we’ve overlooked: enhancing graduate employability through career management skills, Higher Education Research & Development, 28(1): 31–44.

Kitchen, V. 2022. Using games and simulations to scaffold experiential learning in global politics, Journal of Political Science Education, 18(1): 119–137.

Wang, X., Su, Y., Cheung, S., Wong, E. and  Kwong, T. 2012. An exploration of Biggs’ constructive alignment in course design and its impact on students’ learning approaches,  Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 38(4): 477-491.

[1] Cited with students’ informed consent for the purposes of dissemination.