The School of Public Policy is one of the nation's leading graduate programs devoted to the study of public policy, management and international affairs, with particular expertise in the fields of environmental policy, energy policy, international development, international security and economic policy, health policy, education policy, social policy, non-profit management, public management and leadership, acquisitions, and public finance. The School offers a wide variety of master's programs, joint degree programs, graduate certificate programs, and one of the nation's premier doctorate programs. The School's location just outside of Washington, D.C. attracts a stellar faculty of scholar-practitioners who are experts in the theory and practice of public policy and management and influential participants in the nation's policy-making process. The location and faculty in turn attract outstanding students by providing them, not only an in-depth, rich curriculum, but extensive exposure to and interaction with the real-life world of policy-making, the federal government, the international diplomatic community, state and local governments, and a host of non-governmental and multinational organizations. It is one of the few policy schools to combine state, national and international policy study under one roof, and to take into account policy interests in all sectors of the economy, thus allowing both faculty and students to study the full range of issues in all courses and in all research.
In your coursework, you'll develop the critical thinking and analytical skills to enhance your abilities as a decision-maker and policy leader, while participating in opportunities to dive into specific areas of interest. Providing a strong foundation in policy tools and methods and a deeper understanding of particular policy issues, the Master of Public Management prepares you to take on the next challenge in your career.
The federal government is the world's largest single buyer of goods and services, spending hundreds of billions of dollars to meet the country's many critical requirements. Today, as the nation faces unprecedented budgetary pressures, the need to acquire these goods and services efficiently and effectively has never been greater. Leaders and managers who can deliver better acquisition outcomes to support diverse areas, such as military operations, homeland security, the provision of health care, response to natural disasters, energy research and development, etc. are desperately needed. Even as federal government spending has soared in recent years, the acquisition workforce has not kept pace. Furthermore, based on current workforce demographics, well over half of the federal acquisition workforce will be eligible to retire within the next ten years. As a result, thousands of new acquisition management employees are now beginning to be hired.
