The MDP Curriculum

Important facts about the MDP Curriculum

MDP students require 50 credits to graduate.
Required credits take three forms: core, flex-core, and elective. Core courses are specific, preselected courses that MDP students must take to graduate. Flex-core courses are pre-selected course sets from which students choose the best fit. MDP students use elective courses to bridge the gap between core+flex-core courses and the 50-credit requirement. They allow students to explore specific areas of interest not covered by the core and flex-core requirements.
Inter-disciplinary program = inter-departmental coursework. Whenever possible, classes are offered in the specific academic units (colleges, departments) where the research and knowledge reside and taught by faculty from that area.
Many of the core and flex-core courses put students one step closer to a minor in a particular focus area. See bottom of this page for additional information on minors.
This link re-directs to the Program Planning Worksheet (PPW).

MDP Core: Required courses and sequence

First Year Core, Fall Semester [9 cr]

MDP 5001 (2 cr) | Ways of Knowing for Sustainable Development [Wilsey]
PA 5501 (3 cr) | Theories & Policies of Development [Voller]
PA 5031 (4 cr) | Statistics for Public Affairs or PA 5045 Statistics for Public Affairs, Accelerated [How to decide?]

First Year Core, Spring Semester [9 cr]

MDP 5002 (3 cr) | Program Development Workshop [Wilsey]
MDP 5005 (3 cr) | Qualitative Methods for Development Practice [Var.]
PA 5521 (4 cr) | Development Planning & Policy Analysis [Assaad]

Summer Core [3 cr]

MDP 5004 (3 cr) | Summer Field Experience

Second Year Core, Fall Semester [4 cr]

MDP 5100 (1 cr) | Capstone Prep Workshop [Note: this course meets once in early November and then is self-directed for balance of semester]
PA 5503 (3 cr) | Economics of Development [Assaad] *this course may only be taken out of sequence with instructor permission*

Second Year Core, Spring Semester [3 cr]

MDP 5200 (3 cr) | Capstone Workshop in Development Practice [Var.]

MDP Flex Core: Required focus area with flexibility in courses and sequencing

Students to personalize course sequence based on course preferences, timing and annual availability.

ORANGE - typically offered in fall semester
GREEN - typically offered in spring semester
BLACK - typically offered both semesters

Flex Core:

Sustainability Sciences | 6 credits

Sustainability Sciences range from Socio-Ecological to the Socio-Political with considerable overlap. Students must take one course from the Socio-Ecological group PLUS a second course from either the Socio-Ecological or Socio-Political course menu.

Sustainability Sciences:

Socio-Ecological

- ESPM 5251 (3cr) | Natural Resources in International Development [Current]
- FNRM 5411 Management of Forest Ecosystems
- PA 5724 (3cr) | Climate Change Policy [Chan]
- AGRO 5321 (3 cr) | Ecology of Agricultural Systems [Jordan]
- GCC 5008 (3 cr) | Policy and Science of Global Environmental Change [Polasky, Reich, and Hobbie ]
- EEB 5534 Biodiversity Science
- GEOG 5401 (4 cr) | Geography of Environmental Systems & Global Change [Klink, offered online only]
- GCC 5032 (3cr) # | Ecosystem Health: Leadership at the Intersection of Humans, Animals and the Environment [Sopdie & Kennedy]
- PA 5242 (3cr) | Environmental Planning, Policy and Decision Making [ ]
- PA 5751 (3cr) | Addressing Climate and Energy Challenges at the Local Scale [Harrington]
- PA 5761 (3cr) | Environmental Systems Analysis at the Food-Energy-Water Nexus [ ]

# This course may also be used to meet Leading Change flex core requirement

Sustainability Sciences:

Socio-Political

- PA 5531 (3cr) Global Sustainable Development in Practice [Randall] *new course*
- GCC 5017 (3cr) World Food Problems
- APEC 5831 (3cr) Food Agribusiness Marketplace
- LAW 6709 (3cr) Agriculture & Environment [Var.]

Flex Core: Leading Change for

Sustainable Development | 3 credits

Select one of the following:

- PA 5101 (3cr) | Management and Governance of Non-Profit Organizations. [Unk.]
- PA 5771 (3 cr) | Change Leadership for Environmental, Social, and Governance Action [Bishop & Kelly]
- ESPM 5202 (3cr) | Environmental Conflict Management, Leadership and Planning [Nelson]
- GCC 5031 (3cr) | The Global Climate Challenge: Creating an Empowered Movement for Change [ ]
- PA 5011 (3cr) | Dynamics of Public Affairs Organizations [Upoma] - requires instructor permission to register
- PA 5144 Social Entrepreneurship
- GCC 5032 (3cr) # | Ecosystem Health: Leadership at the Intersection of Humans, Animals and the Environment [Sopdie & Kennedy]

# This course may also be used to meet Sustainability Sciences lex core requirement

Flex Core:

Global Health | 2 credits

Select one of the following:

PUBH 6108 (2 cr) | Foundations of Global Health [Muñoz-Zanzi]
PUBH 6320 (3 cr) | Fundamentals of Epidemiology [Widome]

Flex Core: Education & Sustainable

Development | 3 credits

Select one of the following:

- OLPD 5103 (3 cr) | Comparative Education [Shirazi]
- OLPD 5104 (3 cr) | Strategies for International Development Education [Johnstone]
- OLPD 5107 (3 cr) | Gender, Education & Development [DeJaeghere].

Flex Core:

Additional Method | 1 course

Select one of the following:

PA 5003 (1.5 cr) | Introduction to Public Financial Analysis & Management
PA 5032 (2 cr) | Applied Regression (recommended concurrent with PA 5521)
PA 5044 (2 cr) | Advanced Regression (replaced by PA 5046 in spring 2024)
PA 5046 (4 cr) | Econometrics for Policy Analysis
PA 5311 (3 cr) | Program Evaluation
OLPD 5501 / EPSY 5243 (3 cr) | Principles and Methods of Evaluation

Popular MDP Electives: A selection of courses historically popular with MDP students*

*Elective choices are not limited to this list of courses. Lists reflect courses with highest MDP student enrollment in from 2016-2022. Newer courses may not be reflected as a result. Some courses may no longer be offered or may have been renamed or numbered.

Global Policy and Policy courses

PA 5890 (cr) | Foreign policy and international affairs topics
PA 5405 (cr) | Public policy implementation
PA 5825 (cr) | Crisis management in foreign affairs
PA 8302 (cr | Applied policy analysis

Skills Courses

PA 5910 (cr) | Developing your public service career
PA 5926 (cr) | Presentation skills
PA 5927 (cr) | Effective grant writing for non-profit orgs
PA 5928 (cr) | Data visualization with R
PA 5929 (cr) | Data Visualization

Leadership & Management courses

PA 5137 (cr) | Project management in public affairs
PA 5251 (cr) | Strategic planning and management
PA 8991 (cr) | Independent study [various]
PA 5136 (cr) | Group process facilitation
PA 5105 (cr) | Integrative leadership
PA 5190(cr) | Leadership and management topics

Gender, Identities and Social Policy

PA 5561 (cr) | Gender and international development
5622 (cr) | Gender and intersectional leadership.
5622 (cr) | Gender and intersectional leadership II
PA 5601 (cr) | Global survey: Gender and public policy

Evaluation and methods courses

OLPD 5502 (cr) | Comparative evaluation theory for practice
OLPD 8596 (cr) | Evaluation internship
PUBH 6815 (cr) | Community based participatory research

Business courses

PA 5144 (cr) | Social entrepreneurship
ENTR 6025 (cr) | Intro to Entrepreneurship

Global health courses

PA 8461 (3cr) | Global & U.S. Perspectives on Health & Mortality

Typical Minors taken by MDP Students >>>

2011-2022 Data; 108 minors declared; typeface size correlates with frequency of occurrence.

A minor is not required but many students elect to pursue them.

MDP student selections do not represent the full extent of possible minors offered at the University.

This link directs to the University Graduate School's programs and minors catalog.

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