Policy Practicum: Reinvigorating the MPP at Stanford

Catalog description

Stanford offers excellent programs leading to an MA in Public Policy and a Master of Public Policy (MPP) <https://publicpolicy.stanford.edu/undergraduate/major>. Yet these programs do not attract as many students as might be expected. As the university becomes more interested in enhancing its impact on societal problem solving at scale, it is asking whether Stanford's current policy offerings are making full use of the breadth, creativity, and institutional capacity across the campus. With this in mind, Debra Satz and George Triantis, deans of the School of H&S and SLS respectively, have convened a group of faculty and senior fellows to discuss the possibilities for reinvigorating the MPP - not to create a new school at Stanford, but rather to serve as a key node that draws together existing hubs of policy-oriented teaching and research. The Policy Lab will play a role in this effort, asking questions such as: (1) Given recent developments in foundational social science, societal conditions, technology, and geopolitics, what is a sound core curriculum in public policy that is simultaneously attractive to a broad range of students and sufficiently rigorous to meet both Stanford's own standards and those of an external accrediting body? (2) For what careers should we prepare our MPP graduates? We should consider positions in state and local as well as national governments, the vast nonprofit sector, and also the growing need for policy and government-related expertise in the for-profit sector (e.g., corporations, law firms). What curricular changes do we need if we fully reflect the fact that people with expertise in public policy play important roles in a wide array of occupations? (3) Should the MPP program add concentrations that draw on the expertise of faculty in various departments? (4) What would be the demand for an enhanced MPP (a) among current undergraduates…