MA Program Details

The Ford Dorsey Program in International Policy Studies (IPS) Master of Arts degree requires two years of full-time study and 72+ units to graduate. During the first year, students will undertake a broad range of courses designed to build a foundation from which to grow. This includes the core courses, policy skills courses, one seminar in writing and rhetoric, and a course in international economics. Students are also expected to take the gateway course for their area of concentration during year one. In the second year, students focus on their area of concentration, of which there are seven options:

• Democracy, Development, and Rule of Law
• Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources
• Global Health
• Global Justice
• International Negotiation and Conflict Management
• International Political Economy
• International Security and Cooperation

In addition to the concentration courses in the second year, students undertake a practicum, applying the skills they have learned in a small-group setting to provide clients with solutions to current global issues.

Program Structure

Language Requirement

IPS students must show proficiency in a foreign language in order to graduate. Such proficiency can be demonstrated by:

1. Three years of university-level course work in a foreign language; or
2. Passing an oral and written proficiency examination before graduation; or
3. English is the second language.