Philosophy of the MSPPM Program

H. JohnHeinzIIISchool of Public Policy and Management

Philosophy of the Master of Science in

Public Policy and Management Program

This document offers a framework for understanding the Master of Science in Public Policy and Management program. It provides some background on the history of the school and the reasoning behind the program’s development, describes the types of courses we teach and why we teach them, and answers some often asked questions. It is designed to help entering and prospective students understand our educational approach and philosophy.

The Program’s Foundation

The HeinzSchool was created in 1968 to provide rigorous management training to students pursuing careers in the public interest. This kind of training, typically found only in business schools, was new to public policy programs, which focused on the political or personnel aspects of public policy and administration. Carnegie Mellon faculty and leaders in the region worked together to develop a program that was the first of its kind—one that focused on the quantitative, analytical and leadership skills necessary to transform public and non-profit organizations. Today, the School stays true to its founding principles, and added another in the 1990’s: a belief that some knowledge about and grounding in information technology (IT) is a prerequisite to being an effective leader today.

This blend of policy analysis, management/leadership, and IT is reflected in the faculty. No other university puts this mix together in one school. Here, we have social scientists studying information revolution issues, management faculty studying policy problems, and IT faculty advising governments on privacy policy and e-government issues. Our over-arching intellectual agenda is to understand public choice, leadership, and welfare in these changed times. Through the Master of Science in Public Policy and Management (MSPPM), we seek to partner with and empower young professionals to carry this revolution throughout the world.

People who only can analyze kill a lot of trees writing detailed reports, but they don’t change the world. People trained only in management lack vision. People ignorant of IT cannot be effective in today’s workplace. But people with a balanced foundation in analysis, leadership, and IT can best serve the public interest. They will be the “change agents”, “civic entrepreneurs” and “force multipliers” who can make a difference wherever they go.

The Curriculum

The MSPPM is a professional degree. Most students come here with the purpose of pursuing professional careers immediately following graduation. To that end, our education balances both the theoretical and the applied. We teach you the best of policy and management theory because we expect our graduates to think deeply and creatively about fundamental issues. But we want our graduates to be doers, not just thinkers, so we also provide you a host of opportunities to apply that training in simulated--and sometimes actual--management settings. These include group and individual projects, internships, and for some of you, year-long fellowships in regional or national organizations.

See the “Frequently Asked Questions” section for a complete listing of the MSPPM curriculum requirements.

The Core

As you look at the curriculum, especially the core, you will see a variety of courses that focus on building skills. These courses—economics, statistics, financial analysis, information technology, management science, and leadership,—are designed to provide you with a set of tools that you can use throughout your career. We choose to be rigorous and methodological in educating you to be strong problem-solvers who can flourish in any problem domain. A quality graduate education should teach you how to think analytically – so you can determine whether a policy will produce the desired outcomes, a management approach is effective, or a financial statement accurately represents and organization’s financial health. We could instead have required one course each in environmental policy, welfare policy, AIDS policy, international relations, tax policy, trade policy, etc. However, we believe that Heinz School students can learn any policy domain through independent reading and study (as do professionals in the field), but learning econometrics, mastering the art of distilling the key structure of a decision dilemma, or thinking like an economist are not easily mastered independent pursuits.

A complementary observation is that skills largely don’t change, but contexts do, so this approach gives you flexibility for movement throughout your career. You’ll find that today’s hot policy issue no longer will be hot in five years—and you, like most of us, will find new areas that interest you. Your education needs to prepare you to be nimble--within your current job and as you look toward your next one.

It is worth noting that “analytical” and “quantitative” are not the same as “mathematical.” Effective analytical thinking has a lot more to do with having sharp insights into how to structure a complex real world “mess” as it does with taking derivatives or integrals. Likewise, the quantitative skills essential to being effective in the real world have more to do with that special talent of finding meaning in data and of turning numbers into insights, not knowing number theory.

The preceding should not lead you to believe that you’ll have limited contact with policy and management issues in the core. On the contrary, your classes will use a variety of policy issues as the context for learning the various skills described. In your “IT class”, for example, you’ll understand how a local government agency can use the web to provide better service to the elderly. And that process will uncover some of the issues and regulations that affect such policies.

Advanced Coursework

The coursework beyond the core can be characterized as structured choice. We require that you take at least one each of a variety of types of courses: a capstone course that integrates across core courses, advanced methods course(s), advanced policy analysis courses that provide a mature appreciation of how policy plays out in the real world, and a “systems” or “phys tech” project in which you work in a group to solve an important problem for a real client. However, we offer a range of courses that satisfy each of these requirements. Furthermore, concentrations are recommended but not required. Depth in some domain is useful both for getting a first job and excelling at it. We provide coherent packages of courses in nine domains that many students have found appealing in the past, and some of the advanced methods courses and capstone courses blend naturally with common concentrations (e.g., Methods of Policy Analysis as a capstone for students concentrating in policy analysis or Public Finance for those interested in financial analysis). But almost one-third of MSPPM students design their own concentration, and if you believe you have a compelling educational interest in selecting courses that do not comprise an established concentration, you are free to pursue that vision.

It is common and encouraged for MSPPM students to take courses beyond the core elsewhere. The HeinzSchool also offers masters degrees in Arts Management, Public Management, Healthcare Policy Management, and Information Security Policy and Management whose curricula include many courses of interest to MSPPM students. Likewise the HeinzSchool is just one of seven colleges at CarnegieMellonUniversity. MSPPM students frequently take courses in the business school, engineering school (particularly the Engineering and Public Policy Department), and Humanities and Social Sciences (particularly in the departments of Statistics and Social and Decision Sciences). Indeed, there is an agreement among all Pittsburgh area colleges and universities that students may take one course per semester at any other school at no charge. The University of Pittsburgh, including its Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, is a short walk away. So, a student interested in a topic not covered in our offerings can find a course nearby to fulfill his or her educational goals. Lists of these courses are in your handbook and available from the MSPPM Program Director.

Special Courses

Convocation: MSPPM students take two semesters of the Heinz Public Policy Convocation. This is a zero-credit course with no assignments, but required attendance at weekly forums. Some introduce students to faculty and their research, particularly faculty who do not teach first year courses. Some give students a chance to question and raise issues with senior administrators in the school. Some are interactive sessions that help broaden students’ conceptions of what careers are open to them. Many bring in role models who lead organizations, analyze and develop policy, and provide insight on specific domain areas. Some are senior officials in familiar institutions (e.g., the County Executive), but we try as well to bring you into contact with people doing innovative work in unusual places of the sort you may be doing in a few years. Learn from them. It’s likely that you’ll be doing very similar work when you graduate.

Systems Synthesis/Physical Technical Systems: Some programs require a master’s thesis. Strong MSPPM students can apply for the privilege of writing a thesis, but what we require instead is a group project course, either “systems synthesis” (offered through Heinz) or “physical technical systems” (aka, “phys tech”, a parallel course offered through the Engineering and Public Policy department). A thesis is an academic exercise undertaken by an individual. It simulates the life of a researcher in academia. But it is not always the best preparation for students seeking professional careers where there are clients, not advisors; the problems have tight and inflexible deadlines; and above all, the work is done in groups, not solo.

In Systems Synthesis classes, teams of 10 or so students working with the guidance of a faculty advisor solve a real problem for a real client. Systems mirrors the problem solving process you will undertake in your future jobs where a project team identifies and tackles a problem, selecting the process and tools needed and ultimately recommends steps to address the issue. For example, last year a group designed a “trusted traveler” card system for the Transportation Security Administration to improve passenger screening at airports. So effective was the result that the TSA plans to pilot the recommendations at select airports across the US.

Physical Technical Systems projects have exactly the same educational philosophy, but a slightly different structure. There are more students working on a given project, but they are team taught by 2-3 faculty plus a PhD student team advisor and much of the work is done in smaller groups. Most “Phys Tech” students are engineers, and the projects address policy issues surrounding a topic (e.g., global warming, telecomm regulation, etc.) for which the analysis depends on having some technical understanding of the underlying science. Non-engineers are welcome in Phys Tech projects, however. Non-engineers can bring a healthy complementary perspective to the project and can learn how to work constructively with technical experts.

Both Systems Synthesis and Phys Tech projects are intense and provide excellent—and sometimes unanticipated—opportunities for learning when things don’t work out the way the textbooks say they should. However, we believe, and our alums and employers strongly agree, that it is far better for students to work out the kinks in their approach to professional assignments while they are students, than to do it in their first job!

The Intellectual Environment

The MSPPM student body is diverse (~50% female, 20% minority, 30% international; some with significant work experience, some right out of undergraduate school). And, MSPPM students learn from each other, not just from faculty. Some of that learning happens naturally through classes, particularly in group project work. But Heinz also encourages involvement outside of the classroom.

HeinzSchool student clubs: the International Policy Series, the Gender Awareness and Action in Policy group, the Economic Development group and the Healthcare Policy group, host monthly sessions focused on issues specific to their group’s area of focus. Students discuss issues and present research they’ve conducted either independently or jointly with faculty.

There are many more such groups at the university level, bringing students together from across the University’s seven colleges. These groups run the gamut from cultural to educational to social organizations and include the Graduate Student Association, Black Graduate Students Organization, Asian Student Association, Arab Student Organization, Carnegie Mellon Economics Society, Amnesty International, Habitat for Humanity, SALSA, Women’s groups, Ballroom Dance Club and many, many more. A full listing of student organizations can be found at Many MSPPM students choose to become involved in local affairs, working or volunteering for area non-profits, sometimes even serving as student advisors on their boards.

Because we recognize that not all learning occurs in the classroom, The Heinz School is committed to maintaining close physical proximity between faculty and students. All students, all Heinz courses, and almost every single faculty member’s offices are all in our building. Too often interdisciplinary programs like public policy draw their faculty from all over campus – and each faculty member immediately retreats to some far corner of campus as soon his or her class is over.

Applying Your Education

Your graduate school experience is a time for you to learn, experiment, and challenge yourself. Seize opportunities to work in local organizations during the academic year as an intern or in a workstudy position, choose summer internships that will further your professional development, and take on group projects that give you the chance to develop your leadership skills. You’ll find that employers are eager for your skills—give them the chance to challenge you. Neither of you will be disappointed.

A Few Words of Advice

Free advice is usually worth its price. With that proviso, here are a few thoughts to consider.

1.View your time at the HeinzSchool as a chance to test yourself—you’ll end up with a much richer experience for having done so.

2.Dive into the analytical ways of thinking, information technologies, and quantitative methods of the Heinz curriculum. You’ll learn new ways to think and integrate that thinking into all of your work.

3.Trust yourself—in your academic work and career choices. Take advice, but make your own decisions.

4.Do your own work. You’re here to learn. Getting straight A’s is nice, but frankly, no one will care a whit in 5 years what your QPA was.

1. Be a person of integrity. Don’t cheat. Don’t misrepresent yourself. Stay true to your ideals. Help others.
2. Live leadership, starting now. Professional education is more than you and the course material. It’s about building teams, supporting others, and taking initiative.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What are the elements of the required curriculum?

Core Courses

Exemptions: Do I have to take all of the required courses?

Not necessarily. We require mastery of all core courses. We must certify to employers and the world generally that our graduates have all of the skills and knowledge we require for graduation. But if you’ve already taken a similar course elsewhere, or worked professionally in a capacity that teaches what’s covered in a class, the last thing we want is for you to waste your scarce time at Heinz taking classes that for you are remedial.

Some classes (economics, statistics, financial analysis, professional communications) have standard exemption exams. For others, exemptions can be requested on a case by case basis by meeting with the faculty member.

Again, the faculty have no reason to want you to sit through a class that will do you no good. If you want to exempt and think you have mastered those skills, try to exempt. Refer to the exemption guidelines issued in your orientation packet for details on the process.

Why do you say careers in the public service rather than in the public sector?

The old-fashioned view of society is that there were two sectors: private industry and the government. That view was probably always overly simplistic, but it certainly does not apply today. Many social services that were once provided by government employees are now provided by a burgeoning non-profit sector. Government agencies outsource many important functions to consulting firms and other for-profit organizations. Myriad authorities (airport authorities, the Turnpike Commission, port authorities, etc.) manage much of the “public” infrastructure. NGOs are active around the world. Furthermore, many important policies are now made collaboratively between the government and other entities (e.g., for the Internet).