Master’s Programs: Urban Policy Analysis and Management
"Even as federal and state support for U.S. cities has declined, most regions continue to depend on a vibrant central city—which has become increasingly multiracial, multi-ethnic, and multi-lingual. Our program trains innovative leaders to work in public agencies, community-based organizations, and other civic institutions which promote the economic and social well being of diverse urban communities."
—Alex Schwartz, Associate Professor and Chair of Policy Programs
Improving Quality of Life for Urban Communities
The Urban Policy Analysis and Management Program trains professionals and managers committed to improving the quality of life for urban communities and their residents.
One of the first programs of its kind in the country, it prepares students for a wide range of jobs in the public and nonprofit sectors that focus on the development, assessment, and implementation of urban policies and programs.
Graduates work as policy analysts in governmental agencies, as administrators of government programs, and as program managers and executives at nonprofit organizations.
The program offers a flexible curriculum tailored to the interests and needs of individual students. The program’s core curriculum emphasizes:
- Applied, client-centered courses in which students work on policy or management issues for government officials and nonprofit executives
- A solid foundation in and critical assessment of the traditional techniques of policy analysis
- Systematic exposure to alternative theoretical and political perspectives
The program offers concentrations in housing and community development, economic and workforce development, social policy, and finance for community and economic development.
Curriculum
Overview
The centerpiece of the Urban Policy Analysis and Management program is its experientially based curriculum designed to give students a sound foundation in the theory, techniques, and practice of the profession. Using a variety of instructional approaches, including case analyses, computer based problem sets, and actual policy and management problems posed by public officials and nonprofit executives, the program provides students with the settings and problems they are likely to face as professional analysts and managers.
To fulfill the master's degree requirement of forty-two credits, the student structures a program comprised of three components:
- A required schoolwide core of nine credits
- A required program core of eighteen credits
- Fifteen credits of electives (including one international or cross-cultural elective)
- Three credit international or cross-cultural elective
Schoolwide Core Courses
The three required courses of the schoolwide core provide students with basic analytic skills and a knowledge of major theories of management and organizational behavior.
Program Core Courses
Building on the base of the schoolwide core, Urban Policy Analysis and Management has established a program core of five required courses through which students develop the intellectual and technical foundations and the values of the profession.
Internships
To supplement the knowledge gained in their courses, fulltime students without previous experience in the field of urban policy analysis or those planning a midcareer change are required to undertake a noncredit internship during the summer between their first and second years of study. Arranged by the Milano's Office of Career Development and Placement and program staff, internships in appropriate agencies and firms provide an intensive involvement with professionals in actual work settings, which helps students to sharpen their abilities and build confidence in their professional potential. Most internships offer a stipend, and many lead to valuable contacts for future employment.
Electives
To complete their Masters degree program, students expand their substantive and functional expertise in policy and management through five elective courses chosen in consultation with an academic advisor from the range of courses offered in the Urban Policy Analysis and Management program, other programs of Milano, or other divisions of the university. Urban Policy Analysis and Management electives include:
- Advanced Quantitative Methods
- Children, Youth and Family Policy
- Community Development
- Education Policy
- Elements of Finance and Capital Markets
- Globalization, Immigration, and Transnationalism
- Housing and Real Estate Development
- Housing Policy
- Independent Study
- Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
- Managing for Performance in the Public and Nonprofit Sectors
- Poverty and American Social Policy
- Program Evaluation and Design
- Racial Disparities: Causes and Consequences
- The Mayor, the Media, and the Politics of Policy in New York City
- Urban Economic Development Policy
- Urban Environmental Policy
- Urban Policy Journalism
- Urban Sprawl and Policy Alternatives
- Workforce Development