MSc PUBLIC POLICY
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MSc Public Policy
Who is it for?
The Masters (MSc) in Public Policy programme is aimed at recent graduates and mid-career professionals from around the world interested in public policy or policy research. The programme is offered on a full time (one year) and part time (two year) basis and is delivered in Bristol.
Students taking the MSc and Diploma in Public Policy come from a wide variety of backgrounds. Some have no prior knowledge of the field, while others come to consolidate their undergraduate studies. An increasingly common trend is for students already working in a policy environment to take a year out, sponsored by their employer, to improve their skills and career prospects by completing the MSc. This course caters for a mixture of home and international students, and both full- and part-time students.
What does the programme cover?
In this innovative and challenging programme students explore the changing nature of international public policy and consider key questions such as
- What is public policy?
- Who are the key actors and what institutions are involved?
- How is it shaped by, and how does it impact upon, an economic, social and cultural environment which is increasingly ‘globalised’?
Taught by internationally recognised researchers in their policy fields, the programme investigates the international public policy environment in the context of global political economy and the role of business, the voluntary sector and public policy agents in the field of multi-level governance.
The programme encompasses both a theoretical understanding of the policy process and models of appraisal with a practical orientation to evaluating research evidence.
Elective units enable students to further develop in the areas of policy analysis and public management, as well as provide the opportunity to choose from a range of substantive policy areas. These include:
- The economics of public policy
- Health and health care in a global context
- An international analysis of crime, harm and justice
- The international analysis of poverty and social exclusion
- Cities, housing and public policy
- Analysing public policy: Theory, issues, method
- Gender and violence: International and global perspectives
- Migration, asylum and human rights in the European Union
- The European policy process
- The State of Labour
- The policy and politics of urban sustainability
While all the programme units consider policy in an international and comparative context, particular emphasis is placed on Europe and East Asia.
What are the learning outcomes?
Graduates of the MSc in Public Policy will have:
- an understanding of the political, economic and institutional context of policy making in various international settings
- an understanding of the models of policy making and techniques for appraising policy
- the ability to pursue a self-directed research project in any relevant area of policy research
- a practical grasp of the nature of research evidence and skills in the evaluation of that evidence especially in a comparative context
- a grasp of international policy concerns in several substantive policy areas.