STPP Certificate Program Requirements

Overview

The Graduate Certificate Program in Science, Technology, and Public Policy (STPP) is primarily designed for students enrolled in a graduate degree program at the University of Michigan. It can be combined with a Master’s or a doctoral degree in any field. We welcome applications from students in both LS&A departments and the professional schools. (Students can also enroll in the certificate program if they are a non-degree graduate student. For more information about this option, please e-mail us via http://fordschool.umich.edu/prospective/questions_comments.php.)

The STPP Program will prepare students to: 1) participate in the politics and policy of science & technology (as government officials or members of non-governmental organizations); 2) engage in science & technology policy analysis (through thinktanks, industry, or academia); and 3) contribute, as scientific or technological experts themselves, in the science & technology policymaking process.

The certificate requires 15 credit hours of course work designed to teach students:

Students will also be able to learn from and interact with leading thinkers and political players involved in science and technology policymaking through the STPP lecture series. In addition to attending the talks, STPP certificate students will be invited to small lunches with lecture series speakers.

STPP certificate students will also have access to the stpp-grads listserv, which circulates information about science and technology policy-related jobs, fellowships, conferences, and publication opportunities.

Coursework

The STPP certificate requires 15 credit hours of coursework, including three core courses and 2 electives of the student’s choice. Master’s students may “double-count” 6 of the 15 credits. These courses can be taken in any order. Course descriptions for the three core courses are listed below. Students are also strongly encouraged to attend the STPP Lecture Series, which is held on occasional Monday afternoons from 4–6PM. (For more information about the lecture series, please see: http://stpp.fordschool.umich.edu)

STPP Core Course 1: Introduction to Science and Technology Policy Analysis (PubPol 650; offered in Winter; 3 credits)

As it exposes students to the landscape of science and technology policymaking in the US and abroad, this course introduces theories and methodologies for science and technology policy analysis. Students will learn how science and technology policy is made, with specific attention to the roles of government agencies, expert advisory committees, and the public. The focus of the course is to provide tools for science and technology policy analysis, including research funding allocation methods, public value mapping, technology assessment, innovation theory, and cost-benefit analysis. This analytic toolkit will be drawn from literature in a range of disciplines, including political science, philosophy, economics, sociology, and history.

The course is designed to provide students:

This course is designed for graduate students from public policy, public health, law, business, engineering and the social, biological, and physical sciences. No scientific or technical background is necessary.

STPP Core Course 2: Research Seminar in Science, Technology, and Public Policy (PubPol 754; offered in Winter; students must enroll in 3 credit option)

The aim of this course is to introduce students to topical issues in science and technology policy. The course will meet weekly for a formal seminar, involving those speakers from both scientific and technological disciplines as well as those directly involved in formulating science policy at the national level. By interacting with those active in science policy circles, it is hopes that students will gain an appreciation of the processes and underpinnings of current national science policy.

The course is targeted to a broad audience and no prior science background is necessary. Among the topics likely to be covered are: the workings of national science policy, energy sustainability and policy, large-scale research facilities, global climate change, intellectual property, human embryonic stem cell research, the National Academies, cyberinfrastructure policies, the manned spaceflight program, technology-driven economic development, preparing for possible economic pandemics, exponentiating technologies (info-bio-nano), globalization and the “flat world,” new paradigms for the research university, international research and education policies.

The course will be offered as a 1 credit seminar course and as a 3 credit seminar/discussion course. Students enrolled in the 3 credit course will also take part in discussion sessions to follow-up the seminar presentations (5:30–7:00PM). The 3-credit version of this seminar is one of the core courses for the graduate certificate in Science, Technology, and Public Policy (For more information, please see: http://stpp.fordschool.umich.edu).

STPP Core Course 3: Political Environment of Policymaking (PubPol 585; offered in both Fall and Winter, Fall option focuses on science & technology policy examples; 3 credits)

This course teaches students how to understand the domestic political environments within which policies are made, both at home and abroad. Students will learn how to be effective participants in public policymaking, as policy analysts, administrators, and advocates, by exploring what motivates and constrains the various actors in the political system. Case studies will include various debates in science and technology policymaking, including stem cell research, genetically modified organisms, HIV, dam-building, and oil drilling. In each of these cases, it examines several key sites of policymaking—agenda setting, legislation, interest group activity, and judicial review—focusing attention, at each step, on political actors, their understanding of their role and their motivations, and their incentives to use or ignore policy analysis. The course is designed for graduate students in the social or natural sciences, or any of the professional schools. Two variants of this course are available. The variant offered in the Winter semester focuses on various cases in the US domestic policy environment, while the variant offered in Fall semester focuses on the political environment in the area of science & technology policymaking (with examples from the domestic policy environments of the US and other countries).

STPP electives

The courses listed below have been tentatively identified as potential STPP electives. As the STPP Steering Committee is put in place over the next couple of months, it will be in charge of reviewing the syllabi for these courses and determining whether they are, in fact, appropriate STPP electives.**

Information/Communication Technology
PUBPOL 720/SI 621 : Ethics, Values, and Information Dilemmas (FALL)
SI 507/703 : Foundations of Information Analysis & Design (FALL)
SI 510: Special Topics : Data Security and Privacy: Legal, Policy and Enterprise Issues (WINTER)
*SI 519 : Special Topics: Intellectual Property and Information Law (FALL)
SI 523 : Information and Control (FALL) (Newly listed)
SI 532 : Digital Government I—Information Technology and Democratic Politics (WINTER)
SI 533 : Digital Government II—Information Technology and Democratic Administration (WINTER)
SI 550 : Seminar in Information Policy: Regulation & Politics (WINTER)
SI 579 : Government Information—Issues, Resources, and Policy (FALL)
SI 589 : History of Computers and the Internet (WINTER) (New!)
SI 605 : Special Topics: The Development and Future of the Internet (WINTER)
SI 645 : Information Use in Communities (FALL)
SI 648/748 : Info Culture: Theory and Method in the History and Sociology of Information Technology (FALL)
SI 668 : Seminar in Information Policy: Regulation and Politics (currently not offered)
SI 741 : Systems, Networks, and Webs (WINTER)

Biotechnology
*EPID 776: Bioterrorism and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction (SUMMER)
HMP 517 : Issues in Public Health Genetics (FALL)
PUBPOL 759 : Genetics and Biotechnology Policy (WINTER)

Automotive Technology
UP 572 : Transportation and Land Use Planning (currently not offered)
UP 671 : Public Policy and Transportation (FALL)

Space Policy
AERO 583 : Space Policy and Management (WINTER 10) (Note: Offered every other winter)
AOSS 581/AERO 581 : Space Policy and Management (FALL)

Environmental Policy
CAAS 596 : The History of Environmental Thought and Activism (FALL 10) (this course is offered every other year)
ESENG 501 : Energy Science, Technology and Policy (FALL)
NRE 558/CEE 587 : Water Resource Policy (FALL)
NRE 559 : International Environmental Policy and Law (FALL 09) (this course is offered every other fall)
NRE 575/PUBPOL 500: Thinking Analytically for Policy and Decisions (FALL 10) (this course is offered every other fall)
PUBPOL 563/HMP 686: Environmental Policy (FALL) (note: this course is usually offered annually in the fall—but is not offered fall 2008 or 2009)
PUBPOL 564: Government Regulation of Industry and Environment (not currently offered)
PUBPOL 653: Global Environmental Governance (not currently offered)
PUBPOL 655: Energy in World Politics (not currently offered)
*UP 532: Sustainable Development: Resolving Economic & Environmental Conflicts (not currently offered)

General Health/Medicine Policy
ANTHRCUL 458/558 : Maternal/Child Health, the Environment, & Pollution in Africa (FALL)
ANTHRCUL 548 : Theory and Practice in Medical Anthropology (WINTER)
CAAS 443 : Pedagogy of Empowerment: Activism in Race, Gender, and Health (FALL)
CAAS 483 : Gender Poverty, Medicine (WINTER)
EPIDEMIOLOGY 663 : Health, Evidence & Human Rights (FALL)
HMP 615 : Introduction to Public Health Policy (FALL)
HMP 618 : Tobacco from Seedling to Social Policy (FALL)
HMP 625 : Health and Health Systems in the Developing World (WINTER)
HMP 653 : Law and Public Health (WINTER)
HMP 684 : The Politics of Health Care Policy (WINTER)
HMP 685 : The Politics of Health Policy (WINTER)
HMP 693 : Mental Health Policy in the United States (FALL)
HMP 695 : Public Health Policy Issues in Women’s Health Information Law (not currently offered)
SOC 475 : Introduction to Medical Sociology (not currently offered)
SOC 575 : Sociology of Health and Aging (FALL)
WOMENSTD 400 : Women’s Reproductive Health (not currently offered)

General Science/Technology Policy
ANTHRCUL 625 : Anthropological Approaches to Property Rights (WINTER)
*ChemE 597 : Regulatory Issues for Scientists, Engineers and Managers (FALL)
CSIB 647 : Strategy for Technology Commercialization (note: this has been changed to STRATEGY 647)
HISTORY 619 : Knowledge/Power/Practice in Science, Technology, & Medicine (FALL)
HISTORY 629 : Technology and Nature in Africa (FALL—currently listed as “Studies in African History”)
HISTORY 796 : Knowledge and Practice (Topics in History—The Mediterranean in Antiquity) (FALL)
IOE 438 : Occupational Safety Management) (WINTER)
IOE 522 : Theories of Administration (WINTER)
PUBPOL 564: Government Regulation of Industry and Environment (not currently offered)
PUBPOL 654: Science, Technology, and International Affairs (not currently offered)
PUBPOL 657: Practicum in Science & Technology Policy (FALL09) (New!)
PUBPOL 757: National Science Policy (not currently offered)
STRATEGY 647 : Strategy for Technology Commercialization

 

*STPP Graduate Certificate Students may need permission from instructor to attend this course.

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