MASTER PROGRAMME: LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE (LSE), UK

In 2011, the Public Affairs Institute at the LSE was established as a multidisciplinary initiative that brings together specialists from different areas for the purpose of education in public policy under the Master Programme’s flag in Public Affairs. The Master Programme targets to meet the educational market’s emerging demands of highly educated specialists and professionals in the forming, analysis and implementation of policies, including professionals in political decision-taking.

The programme is focused on satisfying the needs of both public institutions and the private sector for specialists capable to maintain relations with the authorities (Government Relations), specialists in political consulting and lobbying, in public-private partnership, consultants in planning and organizing advocacy campaigns, to maintain contacts with the media (Media Relations), with nongovernmental organizations, business associations, specialists in organizing events (Event Management) and others.

The proposed interdisciplinary knowledge core within the Master Programme’s framework is the knowledge of economics and politics. This becomes obvious by the planned compulsory subjects, covering mostly knowledge related to political and economic analysis. The learning process goes for two academic years and ends with a collective project – a Master’s thesis called "Capstone" project.

The Master Programme proposes to the students a choice of five specializations: a) MPA Public and Economic Policy; b) MPA Public Policy and Management; c) MPA International Development; d) MPA European Public and Economic Policy; e) MPA Public and Social Policy. The mandatory lecture courses for all fields are: Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Quantitative Methods and Policy Analysis, Organizations, Power and Leadership, Political Science and Public Policy.

The education in the first specialisation focuses on the economic and policy analysis of public policies, on basic knowledge of political science, basic knowledge in economics and statistics. Compulsory discipline is Economic Policy Analysis. The second specialisation offers students knowledge about the process of decision making and public sector management and knowledge on the drafting of the state budget. Compulsory subjects are: Public Management - Strategy, Innovation and Delivery, Public Budgeting and Financial Management. The third specialisation focuses on the analysis of economic and public policies in developing countries, with a focus on the subjects of Development Policy and Management and Development Economics. The fourth specialisation covers European Union’s issues and provides knowledge and skills for economic and political analysis at European level. Competencies acquired by Master degree graduates allow occupation of positions within the European institutions, national administrative offices, the private sector and other structures interested in European legislation. A compulsory subject is Political Economy of Europe. Tuition in the fifth specialisation is concentrated on the economic and policy analysis of public and social welfare – with an additional compulsory discipline Welfare Analysis and Measurement.

Students at the London School of Economics and Political Science are given a broad range of disciplines to choose among, such as: Social Exclusion, Inequality and the "Underclass" Debate; Education Policy, Reform and Financing; Politics of Social Policy: Welfare and Work in Comparative Perspective; Environmental Problems and Development Interventions; Economic diplomacy; Political Economy of International Trade; Comparative Political Economy; International Institutions; Anthropology of Economy; Nationalism, Democracy and Development; Network regulation; Cyber law; Globalization and Democracy; Comparative Public Policy Change; Legislative Politics; European Models of Capitalism; Europeanization: The Comparative Politics of Domestic Change, etc