Overview
University of Minnesota's Public Affairs Institute Offers Graduate Degrees in Public Affairs and Public Policy in Minneapolis-St Paul Area
With campuses that reach across the Mississippi River between the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, the University of Minnesota is home to the internationally acclaimed Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs graduate school. The school takes a multidisciplinary approach to public affairs education with graduate programs that integrate political science, economics, history, law, and business.
As a member of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs, the Humphrey Institute plays an influential role in setting quality standards for public affairs education across the United States. Graduates of the Minnesota-based institute are fully prepared for public affairs careers in the global marketplace. Past institute graduates now hold leadership positions in public, private, and not-for-profit sectors across the country and around the world.
The Humphrey Institute's graduate programs include Master of Public Policy; Master of Urban and Regional Planning; Master of Science in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy; and Mid-career Master of Public Affairs. Joint degrees are offered in six areas including Master of Science in Health Services Research, Policy, and Administration. The institute is one of four sponsors of a university-wide doctoral program in applied economics.
The Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs is situated on the university's bucolic St. Paul campus, just northwest of the city in the suburb of Falcon Heights. Graduate students appreciate being in a more peaceful setting for their studies, yet the location is also conveniently close to the many cosmopolitan attractions and activities of the vibrant Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area.
Institute Faculty and Students Research Public Affairs Issues in First-Class Policy Centers and Research Facilities
The Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs' nationally acclaimed graduate programs prepare students to tackle public problems and design, implement, and manage solutions for the common good. Institute faculty members and alumni are the leading thinkers that shape the future of public policy and planning and improve the world.
Vigorous research programs are central to all graduate work and take place at the institute's many public affairs policy areas and their research facilities. Major policy and research areas are devoted to global policy; politics and governance; public and non-profit leadership; regional planning and policy; science, technology, and environmental policy; and social policy.
There are over a dozen renowned policy centers and initiatives at the Humphrey Institute. One center is the Freeman Center for International Economic Policy, where faculty, staff, and students identify the major challenges of an increasingly interdependent global economy, mobilize resources to research and analyze the nature of those challenges, and craft effective public responses.
The center's main objectives are to sponsor leading-edge research on emerging problems of the global economy, provide a recognized forum for faculty researchers and others doing research on international policy issues to share ideas, foster communication between the institute and the university's international research resources, and partner with public and private organizations to translate research results and communicate them to Minnesota's citizens.
University's Public Affairs Programs Include Public Policy Degrees and Cross-Discipline Graduate Degrees
The Humphrey Institute's renowned public affairs programs include four public policy degrees. The Master of Public Policy degree (MPP) prepares students for leadership positions in public service with the skills to design, manage, and advocate the development of institutions of governance to accomplish public purposes.
The Master of Urban and Regional Planning degree (MURP) is a public affairs program that produces professionals who can think across fields of expertise and identify and act upon links between environmental systems, land use and transportation systems, infrastructure development, and housing and community development.
The Master of Science in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy degree (MS-STEP) trains students in the role of science and technology in the economy, food production and health, energy and environment, security policy, and education.
The Master of Public Affairs program (MPA) helps mid-career professionals advance their skills in public and nonprofit leadership, management, and policy analysis.
Graduate students can complete their public policy degree along with another graduate degree at an accelerated pace. The joint degrees are: Master of Business Administration/MPP; Juris Doctor/MPP, MURP, or MS-STEP; Master of Landscape Architecture/MURP; Master of Civil Engineering/MURP; Master of Social Work/MPP; and Master of Science in Health Services Research, Policy, and Administration/MPP.
In addition to the master's degrees and joint degrees, the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs offers a Ph.D. program in applied economics; the program is the result of a university-wide collaboration of the Humphrey Institute, the Division of Health Policy & Management, the Department of Applied Economics, and the Department of Human Resources & Industrial Relations.
