M.A. in Public Policy

MA in Public Policy focuses on three main regulators of the society: state, private sector and market.

The goal of the program is to provide the students the knowledge of public policy as well as fundamentals of strategic governance and applied sociology.

The program will prepare the students for professional careers in both national and international settings. Graduates will be particularly prepared to work with various public policy issues within the framework of European Union law and institutions.

Graduates will be specialists qualified to work in the area of labor markets, environmental agendas, media, health care and social care, education and family issues, pensions, inequalities, minorities, immigration, as well as in the activities of urban and rural transformations.

Graduates will be able to identify and evaluate main trends, problems and potential conflicts at both national and global levels. Special attention will be directed toward negative aspects such as corruption, clientelism, organized crime, conflicts and societal threats.

Graduates will be prepared for employment at highly professional levels, or they can choose to continue their studies in post-graduate programs at universities in the Czech Republic or abroad.

The program seeks applications from BA or MA programs in Public Policy, Social Policy, Social Work, Sociology, Political Science, Public Administration, Law, Economy, Anthropology, Psychology, International Relations, History, Business Administration and other social sciences and humanities. Applications from other fields of study will be considered as well.

In order to graduate the students of MA in Public Policy have to take 20 courses: 15 required courses, 4 electives and a research practicum or internship. Each semester consists of 5 courses. The Students can enroll in fewer courses than five but would need additional time to graduate.

The M.A. in Public Policy offers the following courses:

Required: Modern Sociological Theories; Public Policy as a Discipline; Theory of Globalization; Strategic Governance; Comparative Political Systems; European Union Law and Institutions; Methods of Policy Analysis and Policy Design; Conflict Studies; Public Policy in Knowledge Based Societies; Inequality, Class, Gender, Ethnicity; Economic Sociology and Labor Markets; Comparative European Public Policies; Political Economy; History of Public Policy; Advanced Statistical Analysis of Data; Internship /Research Practicum.

Electives may be chosen from:: Public Policy and Environmental Issues; Migration Policies in Liberal States; Public Policy & Multinational Corporations; Health Care, Pensions, Employment and Welfare; Sociology of Family; Sociology of Education and Social Stratification; Urban and Rural Transformations ; Public Opinion & Mass Survey Research; Public Administration ; European Union Issues and Institutions; Minorities in Europe; Ethno-Political Conflicts and Organized Crime; Theories of Antisocial Behavior.

The goal of this masters program is to introduce and familiarize students with a blend of the newest array of sociological and socio-economic theories and perspectives, as well as methodologies used in the field of sociology and public policy. More specifically, the practical and theoretical emphasis is placed on the development of students' skills and expertise in understanding the current and upcoming issues and challenges of a knowledge-based era. It is the first M.A. program in the Czech Republic that systematically focuses on the problems and challenges of knowledge-based societies.

The program is designed around three major arenas of specialization that increase students' employability in private sector (public opinion research, market research, media, human resources management and development), in public institutions and/or non-profit organizations (public policy, educational policy, labor market research, evaluation), and in large international organizations such as the EU, OECD (innovation, knowledge production, competitiveness, globalization). Throughout the program, students develop strong conceptual, analytical, and research that not only make them very competitive at both domestic and international labor markets, but also prepare them adequately for study in Ph.D. programs either at home or abroad.

Find selected student theses and faculty publications at the 'East of the West' publication website for School of Humanities & Social sciences.

M.A. in Applied Sociology and Public Policy

Accredited, through June 2008, by the Czech Ministry of Education.