The organization encourages excellence in research, teaching, and practice in the field of public policy analysis and management. The purpose of this Guide is to provide information on academic public policy programs to assist prospective students, researchers, faculty, and administrators to obtain a picture of the field and identify programs whose offerings meet their individual needs and interests. The public policy academic field includes schools, institutes and programs in public policy, public affairs, public administration, management. Most public policy schools distinguish themselves from traditional public administration schools by having a core curriculum that emphasizes quantitative and economic courses, and with relatively more focus on analysis than administration.
Many programs also train students to develop, implement, and manage programs.
Prospective students should spend time investigating the curriculum, mission, and individual traits of schools to determine whether a particular school meets their needs. This Guide focuses on programs that prepare students for postgraduate level careers in public policy. Two programs featured have only undergraduate programs in public policy. They conduct research and analysis on a wide variety of public policy and management issues. Individual entries indicate the year of the data.