Sustainable Energy Policy: A first of its kind collaborative course at SFU

SFU’s Department of Political Science and the School of Sustainable Energy recently came together to launch the brand-new Sustainable Energy Policy course (POL 452W/855/SEE 773), where political science students team up with engineering students to confront real-world policy challenges through interdisciplinary group projects. This course offers a template for such cooperation across SFU units.

Created by professors Dr. Anil Hira and Dr. Zafar Adeel, the course is a unique platform for students from two distinct disciplines to brainstorm innovative ideas, exchange knowledge, develop strong leadership skills and become well-rounded professionals. Student teams work together to solve current real-world policy challenges, combining technical, economic and policy analyses to offer pragmatic policy solutions.

Having worked together on multiple initiatives, including a sustainable development conference at SFU, Adeel and Hira saw an opportunity to build a course focused on their shared interests. According to Adeel, who is Director of the School of Sustainable Energy Engineering and has worked as a senior United Nations official for nearly two decades before joining SFU, “what benefitted the course is our alignment of thinking around policy, climate change, sustainability and sustainable energy in addition to being good friends.”  

SFU Political Science professor, Hira, who founded SFU’s Clean Energy Research Group (CERG), had previously worked in the US government as an energy analyst and has a long history of working with engineers. Despite successfully helping students land their dream jobs in policy positions, professor Hira felt the need for deeper engineering insights to ensure students’ success in sustainable energy careers. The collaboration with the School of Sustainable Energy helped bridge that gap. “I can teach the economics and the politics behind policy making,” says Hira. “At the same time, the technical side is equally crucial. This course is a major opportunity for students interested in energy and environmental policy to get the proper training.” 

Designing the course to help both engineering and political science students to team up around energy policy issues was in itself a challenge for Adeel and Hira. Especially since the cohort was not only a mix of graduate students from both the disciplines, but also included undergraduate political science students. Hira says the questions he and Adeel asked were, “Can we deliver course material that is at a high enough technical level for engineers? Can we also discuss policy and governance theories, frameworks and concepts at the fourth-year political science level that aren't too remote or novel for engineers to follow?”

“The other big challenge,” says Adeel, “was to create an environment where people actually worked with each other rather than in silos of political science students and engineering students.” This objective was achieved by ensuring each project team had equal numbers of political science and engineering students.

Sustainable Energy Policy is a great launching pad for political science students who are looking to build a career as policy analysts in the public sector. In addition to the job-ready training, Hira mentions networking opportunities: “Students can come to Clean Energy Research Group meetings, create policy briefs and present at upcoming meetings. Some policy projects were designed by policymakers and think tanks, which additionally provided networking opportunities for students enrolled in the course.”

For engineering students, Adeel notes unique and lucrative career opportunities in think tanks and policy institutes around the world. As with political science students, this course helps engineering students build skill sets that set them up for success in government positions at the municipal, provincial and federal level. Talking about his former graduate students, Adeel says, “some now work for Environment and Climate Change Canada, others work for the City of Vancouver in their green infrastructure programs. Having insights into policy making is a huge advantage in those roles.”