Graduate Certificate Course Rotation by Semester

The graduate certificates require 12 credits of graduate coursework or four courses.

The below graduate certificate courses are offered in the indicated respective semesters.

Courses offered are subject to change.

• Public Policy Graduate Certificate Course Descriptions

  1) POLC 6311 Leadership and Professional Development

  Prerequisite: Graduate standing or consent of graduate academic advisor.

  An introduction to policy process and public policy careers, with special emphasis on leadership, teamwork, and organizational dynamics. Professional skill development will also be emphasized.

  2) POLC 6312 Public Finance

  Prerequisite: Graduate standing or consent of graduate academic advisor.
  
  Effects of economic incentives on voters, government officials, economy, and markets. Analysis of situations where private markets fail to be efficient. Applications to government policies at federal and local levels, including welfare, insurance, health care, policing, roads, and Social Security. Analysis of tax system and interaction among federal, state, and local governments.

  3) POLC 6313 Policy Analysis I: Microeconomics

  Prerequisite: Graduate standing or consent of graduate academic advisor.
  
  Overview of microeconomic tools to measure and weigh the gains and losses from any public policy, including consumers’ choices, firms’ decisions, supply and demand framework, market equilibrium, allocative and productive efficiency, property rights, externalities and market failures, and public choices and public goods.

  4) POLC 6314 Policy Research Methods I: Introduction to Statistics

  Prerequisite: Graduate standing or consent of graduate academic advisor.
  
  Provides a basic understanding of statistical analysis for policy research, introduces basic statistical techniques and statistical software packages. Introduces research design and discusses the ethics of quantitative policy research.

  5) POLC 6315 Policy Research Methods II: Multivariate Analysis

  Prerequisite: POLC 6314 and consent of graduate academic advisor.
  
  Reviews more advanced statistical concepts and tools used to study the association between variables. Introduces students to regression analysis and explores its uses in policy analysis.

  6) POLC 6316 Policy Research Methods III: Advanced Quantitative Modeling

  Prerequisite: POLC 6314, POLC 6315, or consent of graduate academic advisor.
  
  Focuses on time series, panel data, and other more advanced statistical concepts and tools used to study the association between variables and systems of variables.

  7) POLC 6320 Policy Analysis II: Political Analysis

  Prerequisite: Graduate standing or consent of graduate academic advisor.
  
  Introduction to analytical models of politics applied to such topics as collective action, majority rule, coalition formation, and the functioning of government.

  8) POLC 6330 Philosophy and Public Policy I

  Prerequisite: Graduate standing or consent of graduate academic advisor.
  
  Evaluating value claims in policy with regard to political theory; normative, ethical, and political goals of policy; and applied ethics on issues of environment, punishment, inequality, gender, race, and research ethics.

  9) POLC 6331 Philosophy and Public Policy II

  Prerequisite: Graduate standing or consent of graduate academic advisor.
  
  Philosophical and critical examination of the value commitments behind different policy proposals. Comparative study of conservative, liberal, and other policy proposals in areas such as education, health care, social security, and income support.

  10) POLC 6371 Elizabeth D. Rockwell Center on Ethics and Leadership Seminar

  Prerequisite: Graduate standing or consent of graduate academic advisor.
  
  This course will require that students attend at least six approved extracurricular events over the course of the semester (such as lectures, seminars, and experiential learning activities), write up critical analyses of them, meet with Rockwell Ethics and Leadership Center Seminar faculty and other students to discuss events and assigned readings, and write an independent research paper on some ethical topic.

  11) POLC 6372 Research Ethics

  Prerequisite: Graduate standing or consent of graduate academic advisor.
  
  This course will provide an introduction to research ethics and address current issues in research ethics, research misconduct issues, and how ethics are used for policy development and research design. It will address topics relevant to researchers in diverse fields, including engineering and the biological and social sciences.

  12) PUBL 6310 Administrative Theory

  Prerequisite: Graduate standing or consent of graduate academic advisor.

  Strategies and techniques for managing public organizations from the perspectives of various administrative theories and organizational models; case studies used to apply theory.

  13) PUBL 6311 Public Administration and Policy Implementation

  Prerequisite: Graduate standing or consent of graduate academic advisor.
  
  Effects of economic incentives on voters, government officials, economy and markets; analysis of situations where private markets fail to be efficient; applications to government policies at federal and local levels; analysis of tax system and interaction among federal, state and local governments.

  14) PUBL 6312 Public Finance

  Prerequisite: Graduate standing or consent of graduate academic advisor.
  
  Effects of economic incentives on voters, government officials, economy and markets; analysis of situations where private markets fail to be efficient; applications to government policies at federal and local levels; analysis of tax system and interaction among federal, state and local governments.

  15) PUBL 6314 Public Administration Research Methods I: Introduction to Statistics (Beginning Fall 2024) / PUBL 6410 Quantitative Methods I (Prior to Fall 2024)

  Prerequisite: Graduate standing or consent of graduate academic advisor.
  
  First semester of a two-semester sequence on research methods commonly used in political science and public administration. Emphasis on issues of research design, descriptive and inferential statistics, and bivariate regression.

  16) PUBL 6315 Public Administration Research Methods II: Multivariate Analysis (Beginning Fall 2024) / PUBL 6415 Decision Science for Public Affairs (Prior to Fall 2024)

  Prerequisite: PUBL 6314 or consent of graduate academic advisor.
  
  Introduces management science approach to problem solving in order to support management, planning, decision making, and evaluation in the public and non-profit sector, including decision analysis, simulation, and forecasting.

  17) PUBL 6345 Budgeting for Public Agencies (Beginning Fall 2024) / PUBL 6342 Budgeting for Public Agencies (Prior to Fall 2024)

  Prerequisite: Graduate standing or consent of graduate academic advisor.

  Introduces students to politics, basic concepts, theories, and practices involved in public budgeting process.

  18) PUBL 6347 Seminar in Health Care Policy

  Prerequisite: Graduate standing or consent of graduate academic advisor.
  
  Politics and economics of health and medical care with emphasis on the delivery of services, their quality, and distribution and financing.

  19) PUBL 6350 Public Management

  Prerequisite: Graduate standing or consent of graduate academic advisor.
  
  Lecture and seminar on developing the knowledge and skills to effectively manage in public organizations.