Public Policy

Office: Sie International Relations Complex
Mail Code: 2201 South Gaylord Street, Denver, CO 80208
Phone: 303-871-6451
Email: baints@du.edu
Web Site: https://korbel.du.edu/academics-advising/programs-ug/ba-minor-public-policy

Public policy is where law, politics, and business meet. It is a multidisciplinary approach to analyzing and evaluating information to solve collective problems. Public policy professionals develop, assess, and evaluate alternative approaches to current and emerging issues, such as education, health care, national defense, or immigration. The undergraduate program in public policy provides a focused, highly competitive major and minor in public policy for ambitious and motivated students.

Since its creation in 1981, the program's graduates have enrolled in some of the best graduate and law schools in the United States; worked as legislative aides for the U.S. Congress or as staff assistants for various branches of government; and have found their studies immediately applicable to the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. As part of the Josef Korbel School of Global and Public Affairs, the public policy program has both a domestic and an international focus.

Students must complete 44 credits in order to fulfill the major requirements including six core classes, three courses within one of the five standing specializations or in a custom specialization (see Program of Study), and two public policy electives. The five standing specialization areas are development, economic policy, environmental policy, law and policy, or social policy. Alternatively, students may build a unique specialization (e.g. security, local government, homelessness, etc.) with advisor approval.

Program Learning Outcomes

Public Policy Major

  • Understand how and why governments leverage policy tools to improve society, support their constituents, and reshape our everyday world;
  • Identify and understand pressing policy problems and develop appropriate, feasible solutions;
  • Engage in challenging conversations about policy ethics and balance a number of political, social, economic, and ethical perspectives;
  • Critically assess policy efficacy and evaluate whether policy meets its goals;
  • Become active, ethically driven participants in the policymaking process.