New ways of thinking and acting are increasingly demanded of public sector professionals around the world if they are to effectively meet the emerging urban challenges they face every working day.
This online comparative public policy program with an emphasis on urban management will equip our graduates with a new, original and practical perspective on contemporary urban and regional issues across the globe in such vital areas as:
This program is for you if you are a mid-level professional supervisor seeking advancement to a management position in the public or nonprofit sectors.
In today’s public policy environment, decision-making is achieved through a process that encompasses three major elements: problem identification, policy formulation, and evaluation of the potential risks involved with every decision.
The CSUN MPP program focuses on these three elements to prepare professionals to meet the increasingly complex challenges of policy analysis as well as for advancement to leadership positions in urban organizations.
The MPP program also equips students to extrapolate lessons from the detailed analysis of problems experienced within a variety of local, regional and international settings to provide a context within which to resolve social, economic, cultural, and environmental sustainability issues in their own communities.
Although there are various public affairs schools in the United States that currently offer a degree in public policy, only the CSUN MPP focuses on the area of comparative and international policy making and its implementation across diverse urban settings.
Also, there are at this time only a handful of universities in California, none of which is a CSU system campus, that offer courses of this nature or provide effective educational opportunities in the field to mid-level supervisors and managers in the public and nonprofit sectors.
In addition, there are no other online public policy programs in the United States with this option. Consequently, CSUN will be the first American university to offer such a degree.
Because the program is offered online, it will attract regional, national, and international professionals in the public and non-profit sectors interested in learning and assessing current practices in their own localities. It is designed to prepare graduates from many countries to fill a variety of roles in diverse urban settings, from staff analysts to middle management.
Moreover, the program’s comparative focus that links Asian, Latin American, Western and Eastern European, and U.S. urban practices reveals to our graduates new ways of solving complex problems through collaborative learning practices.
The program also prepares U.S. and international students to assume leadership positions in increasingly complex public policy environments by training them to create innovative public policies that improve government responsiveness, address issues of social justice, and lead to actions optimizing the health and well-being of society.
Courses in this program will enable participants to develop a solid theoretical understanding of public policy models and analytical tools while giving them the practical, professional skills needed to become astute urban and public managers in international, national and local urban settings.
Specifically, this program gives the future generation of policy makers and those that work with them in public, nonprofit or private settings the theoretical and practical knowledge needed to make decisions that will enhance the social, economic and environmental settings of their communities in the 21st Century.
In the MPP program, a group (cohort) of students starts the program at the same time, taking classes as a complete unit through to the graduation. Once a cohort starts, no additional students will be accepted into the group. The class schedule will be determined in advance for the entire program, permitting students to arrange their personal, professional and academic schedules appropriately.
The cohort format has proven to result in a higher rate of completion for students as compared to traditional courses of study. This approach also allows students to network with fellow students and faculty and to form long-lasting professional and personal relationships with their peers.
In addition, the cohort format permits faculty to build better assessment and programmatic outcome plans, thereby enhancing the sophistication of the material presented to participants.
Questions?
Please contact Patricia Lyon
(818) 677-4607
Email: patricia.lyon@csun.edu
18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge, CA 91330-8434 / Phone: 866-873-6439 / © 2009 The Tseng College, CSUN