Based on the exchange and cooperation in the teaching and research in social policy between Nankai University and Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), an opening ceremony of the Nankai-CUHK Joint Center for Social Policy was held in September 19, 2008, marking the foundation of this Joint Center. Both these two universities have strong background in social policy research. CUHK has a high reputation in social policy research in Asia-Pacific area, and Nankai University’s social policy is on the top rank in China. In the past two decades, the social policy scholars in these two university have done a lot of researches in social policy theories, comparative social policy, social policy transition in the background of Economic Reform and globalization, poverty problem and anti-poverty policy, social security development, social exclusion and inclusion, housing policy, health policy, and social welfare policy for children, elderly and disabled people, etc, and had fruitful academic and applied research outcomes.

Nowadays, social policy is becoming more and more a significant issue, to which a lot of attentions are paid by governments and the public everywhere in the world. This Joint Center tends to select research topics based on the general trends in the world and the specific issues in Mainland China, and Hong Kong, with more focuses on the common challenges that different countries and regions are facing in the background of globalization, especially social problems and social policy development in Chinese societies in different regions. Also, the Joint Center pay special attention to the new problems and topics caused by the socioeconomic transition, and the governments’ responses to these problems. In recent years, the Joint Center has undertaken a lot of research projects, including Social Policy Issues in the Process of Rural Labourer Migration, Urban and Rural Poverty and Social Assistance Policy in China, Urban Housing Policy, Difficult Children and Child Protection Policy, Social Policy for Migrants’ Social Inclusion, Social Protection and Welfare Policy for the Disabled Persons, etc.

The Nankai-CUHK Joint Center for Social Policy is an Open Institutes, mainly constituted by social policy scholars in these two universities. The first directors were Professor Xinping Guan From Nankai University, and Guangliang Tang from CUHN, and the current directors are Professor Xinping Guan from Nankai and Professor Steven Ngai from CUHK. The two universities’ organize strong academic resources in this area, and have double strong cooperative effects in the undertaking of key researches projects and in making academic contributions to social policy research and applied policy recommendations to governments in Mainland China, Hong Kong and in broader areas.

In recent years, the Joint Center organized a student symposium of social policy and social work, collaborating with Fudan University organized seminars each year in the annual academic conference of China’s Association of Sociology, collaborating with the Center of Social Policy, Taiwan University organized the annual academic symposium of Social Policy in Chinese Societies of Mainland, Hong Kong Taiwan, and Macau. Moreover, The Joint Center promotes scholars’ and students’ exchanges between Mainland and Hong Kong, including scholars’ academic visits and Nankai University students’ further education in CUHK.