Offering the Flexibility to Specialize

The MPP program offers great flexibility. Students may choose to specialize in a particular policy area or to pursue a more general program. Two-year students have five electives, an internship, and a master's project through which to address specific areas of interest.  Through the close relationships that exist between the Duke MPP program and other areas of the University, students who choose to create their own specializations are confronted with options that cover every Department and School on campus.

In addition to the electives offered by the Sanford Institute, our students may choose from a wide array of courses offered by other schools and departments at Duke and by neighboring universities. Many students choose to focus on one of the three policy areas in which the Institute has particular strengths: Global Policy, Social Policy, and Health Policy.

 

Global Policy

Global Policy
course advisingMany of the great issues of the 21st century are global: AIDS, climate change, trade, poverty, and human rights. The Global Public Policy Concentration prepares individuals for challenging careers in foreign policy, international development, trade, human rights and democratization, and security and humanitarian intervention.

Meet our policy experts!

Requirements

• Globalization and Governance (concentration foundation course). Students explore economic, political, and social aspects of globalization and their implications for public policy making. The focus is on issues of governance—particularly international cooperation, the design of international organizations, and the role of international NGOs—in shaping international trade and finance, environment, security, human rights, media and communications, and international development policy.
• Two additional global policy electives such as Economic Growth and Development Policy, International Democratization, Strategic Management of Policy Change, or Poverty Reduction and International Financial Institutions.
• Summer internship related to global public policy
• Master’s project on a global public policy issue

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Social Policy

Social Policy
course advisingWith emphasis on quantitative and qualitative analysis, the Social Policy Concentration enables students to design and evaluate social programs, taking into consideration budgetary challenges, political realities and ethical dilemmas in poverty, education, crime, child and family well-being.

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Requirements

• Introduction to Social Policy (concentration foundation course). An introduction to methods derived from economics, systems analysis, political science, human development, and ethics used for analysis of problems in social policy. Policy areas for discussion include poverty, inequality and immobility, child and family, education, health care, immigration, and urban housing, neighborhoods, and crime.
• Two additional social policy electives, such as Schools and Social Policy, Poverty After Welfare Reform, Urban Policy, Philanthropic Foundations and Public Policy, or Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the United States.
• Summer internship related to social policy
• Master’s project on a social policy issue

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Health Policy

Health Policy
course advising Duke, home of the world-renowned Duke Medical Center, has extraordinary resources in health and health policy. The Health Policy Concentration introduces students to key domestic and international issues in health policy, including measuring morbidity and mortality, social and economic determinants of health, organization and financing of health-care delivery systems, technology and health, and health and human rights.

Meet our Health Policy experts!

Students may take electives offered by the Duke Center for Health Policy, the Health Sector Management Program at the Fuqua School of Business, and the UNC School of Public Health. Courses on managed care, public health, and the politics of health care are complemented by other electives available in business, law, economics, and other academic departments. 

Requirements

• Introduction to Health Policy (concentration foundations course). Introduction to major health policy concepts and methods of analysis of health policy problems. The nature of disease, health and economics, health-care delivery systems, and demography and health are presented in domestic and international contexts.
• Two additional health policy electives such as Poverty, Inequality and Health, Health Care in Developing Countries, Long-term Care Policy, Politics of Health Care, or Global Health.
• Summer internship related to domestic or global health policy
• Master’s project on a health policy issue

 

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