THE MASTER IN PUBLIC POLICY (MPP) PROGRAM

Why do cities around the world continue to grow when advances in transportation and information technology are supposed to make such urban concentrations obsolete? How can the costs and benefits of environmental policies be measured? What anti-drug policies really work? How does one achieve consensus in today’s increasingly fragmented, multicultural communities? Is there a "safety net" that meets the needs of the indigent and is also fair to taxpayers? How can basic health care be made available to all?

UCLA’s Master of Public Policy (MPP) program was created to produce graduates who can successfully address difficult questions such as these. The MPP program combines rigorous training in basic analytic skills and a thorough understanding of the policy process with real-world experience to prepare students for key positions in public policy, whether as analysts, managers, or leaders in the public, private, or

nonprofit sectors. Drawing on the strength of its distinguished faculty and its multidisciplinary structure, the mission of the MPP program is to prepare students:

• to bring high standards of technical expertise, critical insight and political sensitivity to the analysis of policy problems and to the social contexts in which those problems occur

• to make effective use of both formal and informal approaches in the design of alternatives

• to analyze the implications of competing alternatives, including their indirect and long-term social impacts, and to make those consequences clear to policy makers and the public

• to develop effective strategies for implementing the chosen alternatives.

To carry out that mission, the School offers a two-year professional program leading to the Master of Public Policy degree, in which students develop a generalist perspective on the policy process—from the local to the international level—as well as expertise in a specific area of public policy. In the first year of study, students are trained in economic analysis, statistical method, and other basic skills of professional competence that enable them to structure problems, to draw useful information from raw data, and to model the effects and outcomes of alternative proposals. The curriculum also provides students with an understanding of the dynamics of the policy process and the complex political and social factors involved. MPP students apply that training in a required 400-hour internship with a government agency, nonprofit group, or other approved organization.

The second year of the program is devoted to an intensive re-examination of this practical experience, together with studies in a chosen area of concentration, which include Health Policy, Urban Poverty, Environmental and Natural Resource Policy, Social Welfare Policy, Transportation and Urban Development, Regional Development Policy, and Employment and Labor Policy. Students also have the option—with faculty approval—to design their own concentrations, a policy that enhances their ability to exploit the breadth and depth of faculty expertise and to keep pace with rapid political, social, and technological change. The School also offers courses in a variety of areas, including Education Policy, Science, Technology and Industrial Policy, and International Policy and Economic Development. The second year culminates in the preparation of a major research paper addressing a real-life policy question.

The program’s flexibility, combined with small class size, accessibility of faculty, individualized counsel of the academic adviser assigned to each student, and access to all the resources of a major research university, ensure that students can get the most out of the program.