Student Directory
Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy
Overview
The Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy is pleased to announce tour new Bachelor of Arts (BA) program in public policy, which will begin in the Fall of 2007. The BA in Public Policy is a liberal arts program that emphasizes multidisciplinary training in the social sciences organized around understanding the public policy process at both the domestic and international levels.
Students apply to the program during their sophomore year and are admitted to the Ford School for their final two years. The program admits 50 students per year.
The undergraduate program builds on two traditional strengths of the University of Michigan: our strong, interdisciplinary social sciences and our students' focus on issues involving politics and public affairs.
Coursework combines classes in economics, political science and other social sciences disciplines with integrative policy seminars that provide opportunities for students to work together in teams to apply their skills in the analysis of contemporary policy problems. This experience, grounded in the liberal arts, provides an excellent foundation for later professional training in a broad range of professions.
Why consider the Ford School BA in Public Policy?
- It is a liberal arts degree.
- Policy problems seldom fit neatly into academic disciplines. Rather than focusing on the mastery of a discipline, the BA in Public Policy is policy-focused, drawing on a variety of disciplines in order to understand a policy challenge and to develop solutions for it.
- The faculty at the Ford School come from a broad range of disciplines (economics, political science, sociology, psychology, mathematics, history) and other professional schools (business, social work, education, information, urban planning, natural resources and environment, and medicine).
- The Ford School BA program will be connected to a broad set of programs and activities, such as the School's research centers, visiting professors and speakers, and student organizations.
- The small size of the BA in public policy will facilitate interaction between students and faculty and will provide a strong learning community.
Degree Requirements
Required courses for the BA (20 credit hours):
PUBPOL 320: Politics, Political Institutions, and Public Policy (4 credit hours).
PUBPOL 330: Microeconomics for Public Policy (4 credit hours)
Stats 350: Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis (4 credit hours)
PUBPOL 495: Policy Seminar (4 credit hours) (taken twice, once as a junior and once as a senior)
Policy Seminars:
The most distinctive part of the concentration is Public Policy 495 (the policy seminars). These will be small interdisciplinary courses that will focus on particular public policy issues. These seminars will emphasize working in teams, writing, and oral presentation skills. The final product of each seminar will be an extensive policy analysis of the issue being studied, written for an audience of public officials. In these seminars, students will apply the skills they learn in other courses and have opportunities to interact with policy makers and scholars who are experts on the issue being studied. Each student must take one seminar as a junior and one as a senior. The seminars will address a balance of domestic and international topics. These seminars will fulfill the upper division writing requirement.
Elective Courses (18 credit hours):
Each student will work with an advisor to define a focus for his/her BA program and to identify a set of electives that provide appropriate disciplinary depth and policy knowledge. Students will be able to select electives from across the university to meet this elective requirement. The Ford School will offer a variety of elective courses each year. Possibilities include:
Poverty policy
Environmental policy
Crime policy
Human rights policy
Ethics and public policy
Economic development
Land use policy
The political economy of globalization
Political advocacy
Science and technology policy
A preview of the curriculum: Public Policy 201
Public Policy 201: Systematic Thinking About Problems of the Day, taught by Professor Paul N. Courant. Pre-reqs: Econ 101 and at least one other introductory social science class. Offered for the first time in Fall 2006.
This will be a sophomore level course, offered for four credit hours. The class will consist of three hours of lecture and one section meeting each week.
The main idea that we want to get across is implicit in the title: Systematic thinking—largely from the social sciences, but with the application of scientific methods and knowledge more generally— can make a difference in the way that we approach and solve current problems.
PP201 is organized around a series of modules that address contemporary policy issues. For each module, Professor Courant will be joined by another faculty member with expertise in the topic being studied. The module topics for Fall 2006 are(1) international trade and outsourcing, (2) intellectual property and file sharing, (3) a proposal that would select as the President of the US the can didate who wins the national popular vote, (4) genetically modified foods, and (5) K-12 education and the No Child Left Behind Act.
Paul Courant served as Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Michigan from 2002-2005. He is currently Professor of Economics and Public Policy and Faculty Associate in the Institute for Social Research.
For more information
Complete the following form to receive more information about the Ford School 's new BA program: Request More Information. Look for Ford School-hosted information fairs throughout the school year.
