Purpose: This article explores the roles and the expertise of Hong Kong in the internationalization of public administration education.Design/methodology/approach: The methodology is based on the data of 5 internationalization initiatives of one Hong Kong university with its internationalization partners in Macau, Korea, Australia, Russia and Finland. The data obtained lasted for a period of 18 months, from September 2019 to March 2021.Findings: The finding of this study revealed that (1) there are 5 “pubtropolis roles” (roles of a public administration metropolis) of Hong Kong in the internationalization of public administration education in China, Asia, Asia-Pacific, Belt-and-Road and Europe. The findings also revealed that (2) Hong Kong served as a pubtropolis with its “5C” expertise in curriculum innovation, customized training, competence framework, competence assessment and comparative policy.Research limitations/implications: As the methodology of this article is based on the data of 5 internationalization initiatives of one Hong Kong university by one academia only, further studies can be conducted at department, faculty or university level for multiple academia.Practical implications: There are two practical implications: (1) The more the roles of a city, the broader the view in its internationalization of public administration initiatives; (2) Hong Kong could further tap on its expertise in “5C” in public administration: curriculum innovation, customized training, competence framework, competence assessment and comparative policy to exert its “geo-management” power.Social implications: This article argues that public services can be improved by the setting up of “Sabbatical Leave Scheme for Internationalization of Public Administration” by respective governments to sustain the impacts observed.Originality/valueIt is from the author's original work. Copyright © 2022 Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Purpose Political parties in Hong Kong are eager to recruit university students and internship programs are a major recruitment channel for them. However, studies on the influences of political internship programs on university students are few and have mainly been conducted in Western democracies. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the roles of political party internship programs in encouraging university and community college students to join political parties in Hong Kong, a semi-democratic autonomous region of China. Design/methodology/approach This study is based on the insights gained from semi-structured interviews with a small sample of former party interns. Findings This paper found that party internship programs can play three major roles in encouraging students at higher education institutions to join a political party. They are: exposing students to the recruitment efforts of the party, helping students who have no political aspirations to generate a desire to join, and providing an opportunity for those already considering joining to ascertain if the party is really suitable for them. Originality/value This paper shows that political internships in semi-democratic regimes like Hong Kong can play similar roles as those in Western democracies to stimulate some university students to pursue a career in politics and help those already considering a political career to ascertain their goals. This paper also shows that these stimulating and confirming effects could also apply to the application for party membership.
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