Carlos Lo Wing-hung, head of CUHK’s Department of Government and Public Administration, said the curriculum reform plan has been submitted to the university and the merger will start in the 2023/24 academic year at the earliest, he said in an interview with The Standard’s sister newspaper Sing Tao Daily.

Lo said the government and public administration courses "emphasized too much on politics," which weakened graduates’ competitiveness. He hoped the new program will have more content on international relations and public administration, to increase its attractiveness.

Lo also said students of the program can do their internships at different institutes.

"Students who are interested in international relations can arrange to intern at embassies or non-profit organizations, and those interested in public management and policy study can go to think-tanks, while those interested in politics can do their internship at lawmakers’ offices,'' Lo said.

The department will hire more lecturers and teaching staff after the merger.

"Currently, there are a dozen professors and lecturers in the government and public administration program and they mainly teach politics subjects. Only two to three lecturers are teaching public administration and international relations," Lo said.

Fewer students applied for the government and public administration program after the 2019 social unrest and the number of students admitted annually to the program has dropped from 38 students in the past to 25 this year.