Public Policy (Taught)

Our Masters in Public Policy allows you to develop the conceptual, analytical and practical skills you’ll need to flourish in the world of policymaking. We prepare you for a career in vocations that make a contribution to the development or delivery of public policy.

This course is extremely flexible, and you can tailor it to fit your particular interests. Core modules on Policy Theory and Practice are combined with optional modules in Social Research and policy-relevant disciplines. If you want to pursue an interest in other policy-relevant disciplines, you can also combine a focus on policy and research with options in areas such as:

law
economics and behavioural science
strategic communications
international politics
You can also use this degree as a pathway to pursue research to PhD level by taking three modules in Applied Social Research.

As part of the Masters course, you must complete a dissertation. You’ll also have the potential to gain practical experience by pursuing a placement with a relevant organisation (with our help) – allowing you to tailor your research to a policymaker or policy-influencer audience.

Our staff have a wide range of connections with organisations in the public, private and third sectors. These can be used not only to pursue your placement-based coursework, but also build your own personal networks.

How does the policy process work; policymaking: theories and approaches; research design and process; quantitative data analysis; qualitative data analysis autumn; the nature of social enquiry.

Assessment is based on coursework.