POLS206-26S1 (C) Semester One 2026

Introduction to Public Policy and Policy Analysis

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 16 February 2026
End Date: Sunday, 21 June 2026
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 1 March 2026
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Sunday, 10 May 2026

Description

How do governments address real-world problems such as health crises, climate change, and social inequity? Public policy broadly refers to government goals, decisions, and actions/inactions made on behalf of the public to address perceived issues, and policy analysis entails examining and evaluating the available options. This course introduces students to public policy and policy analysis, with an overview of power and rationality, colonialism, institutions, theories of policy change, citizen participation, policy learning, and more. Over the term we will devote particular focus to Aotearoa/New Zealand, Australia, and small pacific states. This course is part of the public policy subdiscipline of the Political Science degree, is co-coded with Human Services, and is also relevant to a number of other degrees across the university.

Prerequisites

Any 15 points at 100 level from HLTH, HSRV, or
POLS, or
any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA, or
LAWS, GEOG, or
the Schedule V of the BCom.

Timetable 2026

Students must attend one activity from each section.

Lecture A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Monday 13:00 - 15:00 Rehua 102
16 Feb - 29 Mar
20 Apr - 31 May
Lecture B
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Thursday 11:00 - 12:00 Rehua 102
16 Feb - 29 Mar
20 Apr - 31 May

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $948.00

International fee $4,263.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Language, Social and Political Sciences .

All POLS206 Occurrences

  • POLS206-26S1 (C) Semester One 2026
  • POLS206-26S2 (C) Semester Two 2026 - Not Offered