MA Political Governance and Public Policy is a two-year interdisciplinary program focused on the training of highly qualified analysts, managers and political leaders who will pursue career in public governance, including government agencies, international organizations and the non-profit sector. The program is designed to meet the challenges of the modern public sphere: the graduates of the program will have all the necessary professional competences to deal with complex unique challenges, put the right questions, determine the specificity and scale of the problems, develop and explore the range of possible solutions, as well as evaluate the potential of public institutions and actors to implement these decisions. Core academic courses will give students the opportunity to shape and sharpen the skills of leadership, management, analysis and implementation of public policy. Graduate students will learn how to mobilize and manage internal and external organizational resources, how to arrange monitoring and setting of public policy. Formation of leadership qualities will enable graduates to successfully implement policies and management strategies in today’s complex and unstable society.
Core disciplines
- Theories of Public Policy
- Qualitative Methods in Public Policy Analysis
- Quantitative Methods in Public Policy Analysis
- Informatics for Public Policy
- Macro and Microeconomics for Public Policy
- Political Methodology and Philosophy
- Political Leadership and Strategy
- Organizational Management and Elaboration of Public Policy
- Collaboration and Political Decision-Making Process
- Political Development and Change
Special courses
- Culture and Ethics in Public Policy
- Knowledge Management in Public Administration
- Project Management in Politics
- Russian Governance and Decision-Making
- Russian Administrative Law
- Budget Policy in Russia
- Industrial Public Policy in Russia
- Political Psychology and Public Policy
- Comparative Public Policy
- Policy Evaluation
- Inequality and Social Policy in Russia
- Conflict resolution in GR-management
- Russian Economic Policy
- Foreign Affairs and Public Policy
- Russia in the New Emerging World Order
- Contentious Politics in Contemporary Russia
- Business and Interest Groups in Russian Public Policy
- Russian NGOs and Political Parties in Decision-Making
- Governance Though Communities
- Environmental Public Policy
- Political Discourse and Public Affairs
- Urban Governance and Policy
- Expertise And Political Consulting
Educational Methods
An important feature of the master’s program is the use of modern educational methods: role games, round table discussions, case-study and internships. The most important part of training is also a «Master’s Project» — a series of methodological and practice-oriented seminars in which undergraduates are introduced to pressing questions of public policy, learn to solve various problems and prepare a project in their area of their interest. Analysis of the experience of real public policy and the specific problems faced by political managers in contemporary public policy will enable graduates to be ready for self-solving the most complex problems and to be competitive in the labor market.
Internships
Students of the Program can apply for Academic internships at the partner Universities of Saint Petersburg State University from more than 20 countries all over the world.
Professional internships are arranged at Public administration institutions in Saint Petersburg as well as at NGOs and Think tanks.
Career opportunities
Graduates get a variety of career options in different areas of public service, all levels of government, political Parties, NGOs, think tanks.
Some of the positions of the graduates of our master’s programs are:
- Head of the Department for Interaction with Nonprofit Organizations, Press Committee of the Government of Leningrad Region
- Public Relations Manager at Saint Petersburg branch of the political party «Just Russia»
- Project Manager at the Saint Petersburg Regional nonprofit organization «Center „Innovations“»
- Expert at the «Freedom of Information Foundation»
- Deputy director at the Council of Municipalities of Saint Petersburg
Research possibilities
Students of the Program are actively involved into research projects at the Faculty of political science.
They also have the opportunity to participate in different scientific events and get funding from the University to travel to the Conferences abroad.
Prerequisites
A Bachelor’s degree or higher.
Fluent English. If English is not your native language, please present certificate or other documents that confirm your English language abilities.