CGU’s Master’s in Public Policy (MPP) degree begins and ends with purpose. As an MPP student, you’ll benefit from an emphasis on social justice and human flourishing, transdisciplinarity, a customizable curriculum that aligns with your passions, and proximity to the Los Angeles metropolitan area—a living laboratory of social and economic issues.
The MPP program will challenge you to think big, but also to think practically. You’ll learn to design and implement transformative public policies, as well as fashion and invigorate institutions and partnerships. Since tomorrow’s policy challenges do not inhabit any one academic domain, you’ll work across disciplines and out into the world, and learn to combine ideas and insights in new ways that matter.
CGU’s proximity to the Los Angeles metropolitan area will give you firsthand exposure to the most pressing social and economic issues—the growth of immigrant populations, urban environmental impacts like suburban sprawl, environmental injustice, green energy infrastructure, and education reform. In the MPP program, you’ll train with some of the world’s leading experts in these areas, and you can customize your learning experience by combining core courses and electives to align your passion and purpose with pressing social problems.
Program Highlights
Design your own specialization based on your interests: urban and regional development, poverty and inequality, public health, water policy, education, international development, and more.
Pursue your MPP in conjunction with another degree. Earn a PhD in psychology or a Master’s in Public Health. Apply units from one program to the other to decrease the required total units.
Prepare yourself for a high-impact career. CGU alums work in exciting positions in government, business, and non-profits—locally, nationally, and around the world.
Program at a Glance
UNITS
32 units
ESTIMATED COMPLETION TIME*
1.5 years
*Program completion times may vary depending on course registration, units transferred, and time to complete other degree requirements.
Examines how policy is formed, framed, and filtered in the American political system. Various theories and models of policy making are examined and compared.
PP 338
Policy Design and Implementation
Explores how policy analysis can help us devise better public policies—and then make them work in practice.
PP 341
US Immigration Policy
The increased movement of capital, information, and people has forced scholars and policymakers to rethink traditional paradigms and boundaries regarding nation states. The purpose of this course is to look at one of the most important facets of globalization, the movement of people, and to understand the challenges it poses to U.S. policymakers and society.
PP 485
Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research
This course introduces students to qualitative research methods, general research design principles, and mixed method approaches to social science. The main goal of the course is to provide students with knowledge on the benefits and limitations of the different research methods as well as to teach students how to best choose methods that fit the research question at hand.
TNDY 405C
Wealth, Poverty, and Inequality
Surveys the diverse literature on income inequality to develop a nuanced understanding of the issue and, ultimately, develop a policy proposal to manage rising income inequality with a multifaceted approach.
TNDY 407V
Urban Studies
Cities represent about 2% of the world’s area, 50% of the world’s population, 75% of the world’s energy consumption, 80% of the worlds carbon emissions. This class will ground students in an understanding of: the development of cities, aspects of the contemporary city, basic understanding of systems thinking and the urban system, how cities are believed to grow (or not), and how we might measure the complex known as “cities.”
Curriculum
The Master of Arts in Public Policy is a 32-unit (up to 40 if students lack prerequisites) degree program that builds knowledge of current government programs and debates about them. This degree can be completed in 18 months (full-time) or 2 years (part-time).
Core Courses (20 units)
Public Policy Process (4 units)
Policy Design and Implementation (4 units)
Multivariate Regression Analysis (4 units)
Advanced Applied Data Analysis (4 units)
Transdisciplinary Capstone (4 units)
Evaluation (4 units)
Policy Evaluation (4 units) OR Cost-Benefit Analysis (4 units)
MPP Pathways (8 units)
Advanced Analysis pathway
Social Justice and Inequality pathway
Environmental and Water Policy pathway
Health Policy pathway
Leadership and Flourishing pathway
Prerequisites
Statistics and Microeconomics, which can be met at CGU via Microeconomics and Public Policy or Microeconomics (requires math) and Quantitative Research Methods.
Faculty & Research
Heather E. Campbell
Thornton F. Bradshaw Professor of Public Policy
Director, Division of Politics & Economics
Research Interests
Public Policy, Urban Environmental Policy, Environmental Justice
Professor of Practice, Community and Global Health
Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Director of the Certificate and Master of Public Health (MPH) programs
Research Interests
Evaluation of Health Communication Campaigns, Effects of Pro- and Anti-Tobacco and Alcohol Marketing; Public Health Education Accreditation
