Recent graduates of the Department's M.Phil. and Ph.D. programmes were awarded the Best Dissertation Award for 2001-2002 at the Hong Kong Political Science Association's Annual General Meeting on 3 May 2003.
Honoured were Dr. Lam Wai-man, whose dissertation, 'Rediscovering Politics in Hong Kong (1949-1979): The paradox of political indifference' won in the Ph.D. category and Pradyumna Amatya, whose dissertation, 'Institutional Change and Intervention Outcomes: Comparing Assistance Schemes for Farmer Managed Irrigation System in Nepal' in the M.Phil. category. Dr. Lam's thesis was supervised by Dr. Joseph C.W. Chan and Mr. Amatya's by Dr. Danny W.F. Lam. This was the first year that the HKPSA made the awards. The dissertations were deemed to be the best in each category among all those produced in Hong Kong by the territory's tertiary institutions.