The School of Public Policy at UMBC

Our mission is to provide quality education for a diverse range of high quality students (both full time and part time) with a variety of aspirations and career goals related to public policy. These include: - Students who have recently completed their undergraduate education and are interested in pursuing careers in policy analysis, management, or research; In-service (mid-career) professionals who want to improve their abilities and qualifications; - Students who have already completed a master’s degree in public policy, public administration, planning, or a related discipline and wish to pursue additional education; - Individuals who are interested in teaching or research positions in public policy-related fields at academic institutions. When you study public policy at UMBC, you will learn not only the public policy process, but also the tools and concepts for analyzing public policy. The public sector emphasis and training in evaluation and analytical methods distinguishes our program from others in the region. The Policy Sciences Graduate Program was conceived in 1972. Policy science at that time was an emerging field that used an interdisciplinary approach to solve local, regional and national problems. UMBC was a young institution that had opened in 1966 with a philosophy based on innovation and inclusiveness. Consistent with that philosophy, UMBC established a policy sciences education center in the mid-Atlantic region.The master’s program enrolled its first class of 12 students in 1974. The first nine Ph.D. students were admitted in 1978. The program became the Department of Public Policy in 2003. Once housed in the Administration Building, the department moved into the new Public Policy Building in 2004. In 2014, UMBC established the School of Public Policy.