Course details

Summary

Develop and improve your capabilities in policy advising and analysis and get the skills you need to help government decision-makers.

Fast-track your career in policy

Policy-makers create strategic and operational policies that make life better locally, nationally and internationally.

Give yourself the opportunity to get a high-level overview of the latest public sector developments and insights. You'll develop your abilities, broaden your perspective, deepen your understanding, challenge your thinking and increase your employability.

Careers

Skilled-policy makers are in demand both in and outside of government, due to their technical and creative skills and commitment to solving society's challenges.

You might find work in central, local or regional government, a Crown entity or a not-for-profit organisation, or a private consultancy or corporation active in policy-making and implementation processes.

Qualification family structure

• Master of Public Policy
• Postgraduate Diploma in Public Policy
• Postgraduate Certificate in Public Policy

Choose the qualification that suits your career goals, time constraints and financial situation.

If you are initially accepted for a certificate or diploma, you can apply to transfer to the Master’s degree at a later stage. Both your performance in the programme and your professional work experience will be taken into account when looking at your application.

If you're working towards a Master of Public Policy and illness, promotion or other reasons for leaving your studies come up, you may still be able to graduate with a certificate or diploma.

What you'll study

You'll take a mixture of foundation and core courses that will give you the skills and capability to design, implement and evaluate policy for a range of different outcomes.

Learn about the theory and practice of policy making and examine the role of government and others in policy creation and implementation. Understand the issues at play in different policy areas like local government, health or development. If you're working while you study, you can apply what you learn to your own workplace policy challenges immediately.

MPP students should also take a research paper as part of their qualification. This could be a research topic that is relevant to your workplace.

Doing a PhD

Your Master of Public Policy may include enough research to qualify you for PhD study if you do intend to progress to a PhD, talk to your programme director to find out what you need to do to qualify.

Entry criteria

Bachelor's degree and two years' work experience, or extensive work experience.

Other English Language requirements:

• IELTS overall band of 6.5, no sub-score below 6.0; or
• TOEFL 90 on the internet-based test with at least 20 in writing; or
• A minimum of two ratings of 5 and two ratings of 4 in the Victoria University English Proficiency Programme test
• Pearson Test of English: A score of 65 (with a ‘Communicative’ score of not less than 58).