The Department of Public Policy offers a rigorous and challenging program that provides the analytical tools and strategic orientation that one needs to be a leader in identifying policy problems, designing new policies and organizations, advocating their adoption, managing their implementation, and evaluating their impact.
Our Master of Public Policy program combines the best of traditional policy education with a flexibility and responsiveness that enables our graduates to remain relevant and influential in a rapidly changing world. By setting the highest standards of excellence and giving students a diversified tool kit of quantitative and analytical skills, and the flexibility to design a program of study that incorporates the vast intellectual resources of one of the nation’s top research universities, we produce graduates who are equipped to become real leaders in policy making.
Academic Programs
The UCLA Department of Public Policy offers the Master of Public Policy (MPP). MPP students can pursue interdisciplinary Global Public Affairs and Leaders in Sustainability certificate programs. Joint degrees with Law, Management, Public Health, Medicine, and Social Welfare offer an even broader range of skill and expertise development. An undergraduate Minor in Public Affairs is also available.
Our Master of Public Policy is a two-year program focused on problem identification, policy analysis, and policy influence. It seeks to enhance the range of ideas and knowledge about how to address public problems and improve the skills of those who deal with them professionally. Candidates conduct research directed to public issues, inform public policy professionals, and partner with public servants and the community to solve public problems.
The MPP consists of a core curriculum, a second-year policy analysis project, and numerous electives chosen from the program, the broader Luskin School, and UCLA.
The emphasis of the curriculum is on the following:
- Social science methodologies for data collection, analysis, and program evaluation
- Understanding political institutions and processes
- Economic analysis and other applications of quantitative analysis and modeling, as well as the use of statistical software
- Legal issues around public policy
Related to the MPP, graduate students in the Global Public Affairs program pursue research, study, and collaborate with scholars and leaders in public policy from a global perspective. Four certificate programs allow students to explore deeper specializations in Global Environment and Resources, Global Health and Social Services, Global Processes and Institutions, and Global Urbanization and Regional Development. Concurrent Degree Programs offer joint graduate degrees in law, management, medicine, public health, and social welfare. Visitor Programs attract visiting faculty, scholars, and students from partner institutions abroad.
UCLA Luskin Public Policy faculty are leaders in research and practice, tackling a wide range of pressing policy issues across economics, political science, sociology, and public policy. They collaborate closely with colleagues and students across UCLA’s professional schools and academic departments, benefiting from one of the most productive faculty communities in the nation—including Nobel Prize winners, MacArthur Fellows, and members of the National Academy of Sciences.
Our faculty not only advance scholarship through publications in top journals but also apply their expertise in real-world settings, advising governments at all levels—from the White House and Congress to California state leadership. They draw on the extensive resources of UCLA and the broader UC system, with key centers such as the California Center for Population Research (CCPR), California Policy Lab (CPL), and the Federal Statistical Research Data Center (FSRDC) located within the department itself.
Counteracting the Market Dominance That Keeps Health Care So Expensive Research by UCLA Luskin's Wesley Yin is one of several projects made possible by nearly $55 million in awards to the school
Research by UCLA Luskin’s Wesley Yin is one of several projects made possible by nearly $55 million in awards to the school.
Jennifer Gorman MPP ’26 Drives Hydrogen Innovation at Honda As a summer intern on Honda’s Hydrogen Solutions Team, Gorman conducted market research, regulatory analysis, and workforce planning.
Jennifer Gorman MPP ’26 reflects on her summer with Honda’s Hydrogen Solutions Team, where she saw firsthand how corporations and policymakers work together to drive clean energy solutions.
Summer Job Diaries: Margaret Saunders MPP ’26 From the Classroom to NASA: A Summer at the Intersection of Data, Policy, and the Planet
Margaret Saunders MPP ’26 spends a summer at the intersection of data and policy in the NASA Develop internship program.
Why Get Your MPP at UCLA?
“My experience at Luskin is one that I would not trade for the world. I really feel like I made the best decision.” — Tonya McClendon MPP ’22
The UCLA MPP Experience
Distinguished Faculty, Real-World Impact
The full-time faculty members in the MPP program are extraordinary scholars in the applied social sciences, bringing a broad multidisciplinary and advanced analytical approach to their research in policy areas such as education, environment and sustainability, health and health care, international development, urban development, poverty and inequality, and more. They earned doctorates from the nation’s top universities, such as Harvard, Michigan, MIT, Northwestern, NYU, Princeton and Stanford, as well as other University of California institutions like UC Berkeley and UC San Diego. The faculty also bring to bear their experiences shaping policy from Los Angeles to the nation’s capital, supplemented by practitioners like former presidential nominee and governor Michael Dukakis and Los Angeles political mainstay Zev Yaroslavsky. Rounding out the program are UCLA faculty members with joint appointments in fields such as medicine, public health, management and social welfare.
Outstanding Curriculum
The MPP provides the necessary training to succeed in policy and leadership positions in any setting without sacrificing the flexibility to craft a portfolio that suits your analytical and substantive needs. Learn to model policy problems. Conduct sophisticated quantitative analyses. Engage in effective strategic action in complex policy-making systems and organizations. Then wrap it all together with an Applied Policy Project in a real world setting in partnership with client agencies, nonprofit organizations, and firms working in the public interest.
Community of Learning
With 70-80 students per entering MPP cohort, the program is small enough to build a potent sense of community among students and faculty, yet large enough to encompass a wide range of personal and professional backgrounds — both domestic and international. Learn among peers with diverse backgrounds and a vast array of policy interests. Network with alumni who work locally and throughout California, the nation, and abroad. Take advantage of the support for MPP students that totals roughly a half million dollars a year in fellowships, as well as teaching and research assistant opportunities available to all admitted students, regardless of immigration status.
A World-Class University at Your Fingertips
UCLA is one of a handful of universities in the country with public policy programs that are also comprehensive campuses. UCLA has all the social sciences and schools of medicine, public health, business, law, education and engineering — all of which are top ranked programs. All of schools are also on the main campus in bustling Westwood, Los Angeles, making them within easy reach for faculty and students. MPP students routinely enroll in courses, work with faculty who are leaders in their fields, and attend workshops across the campus. Come to Luskin, and you have arrived at one of the most influential research universities on earth! Formal rankings of universities routinely place UCLA among the top of all universities in the world. Domestically, UCLA has been ranked among the very best in the nation for years, a testament to our enduring commitment to academic and professional achievement.
The Luskin School
Endowed by Meyer and Renee Luskin in 2011, the intellectual scope, resources, and activities of the Luskin School provide an exciting home for the Department of Public Policy and its MPP program. With the Department of Social Welfare and the Department of Urban Planning, our students can access even more faculty expertise, courses, and networks in social policy, from macro analysis to individual-level service delivery, and enjoy analytical entrée to all of the elements of the “built environment” and its impact on communities and individuals. The Senior Fellows program, part of the Leadership Development Program, brings the real world of elected officials, policy makers, service providers, and advocacy organizations to the Luskin School community, and links our students to mentors who can help inform their policy work and career paths. Additionally, three endowed research centers work at the forefront of issues of central concern to our students, serving as sources of seminars, grants, and employment. There are also centers associated with Luskin in specific policy domains, as well as many others across campus with which our faculty and students are affiliated. The team in Career Services provides a wide range of services to promote career readiness core competencies, prepare students for the employment market, and link them to internship and job opportunities.
A California Perspective
Studying policy issues in California is different from being in any other state. With almost 40 million people, it is the largest state in the United States, filled with a diverse range of people from a variety of backgrounds. By the standard measures it has the most professional legislature among the states and a state budget not far from twice that of New York, the next largest. In many respects, California is really like its own country, with more people than Canada and a GDP that would place it 6th among nations in the world, comparable to France.
Studying Policy in the Heart of Los Angeles
One can study for an MPP degree in academic isolation, or do so right in the heart of the national and global policy experience. There is no better policy laboratory than sunny Los Angeles, where average monthly high temperatures that range between 68 and 84 degrees have helped swell the county’s population to a total bigger than all but eight states in the U.S. By 2010, the county had already matched the projected demographics of the United States in 2050 — a minority-majority population with two thirds of people being Latino/a, African American or Asian. The Luskin School is just 12 miles from the epicenter of Los Angeles city and county governments, and close to the nearly 90 other cities in the county. Our MPP students witness up close the dynamics of policy. There is hardly a policy dilemma that does not show its face in the L.A. region that can afford lessons for solving problems here, across the nation, and around the globe.
UCLA’s MPP program attracts students from a wide array of academic backgrounds, including social sciences, liberal arts, and STEM fields, as well as professionals at various stages of their careers. Graduates go on to careers in federal, state, and local government, international organizations, nonprofits, research institutions, private firms, and elected office. Across these paths, the program equips students with the skills and experience to make a meaningful impact in public policy worldwide.
Our MPP graduates have gone on to wide-ranging careers that include:
- Federal Government: Departments such as Education, Homeland Security, and Transportation; agencies like the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and USAID
- State & Local Government: California state agencies, city and county positions nationwide and abroad
- International Organizations & NGOs: U.S. Foreign Service, World Vision, Relief International, Chemonics Inc.
- Nonprofits: Local community-based organizations and national groups such as Environmental Defense Fund, Children’s Defense Fund, and United Way
- Research & Policy Institutes: California Policy Institute, Mathematica Policy Research, Urban Institute
- Private Sector: Firms like Booz Allen Hamilton, Boston Consulting Group, Nike, Google, and Optima Health
- Elected Office: Some graduates have run for and held public office
The Office of Career Services and Alumni Relations, the Leadership Development Program, the Senior Fellows Program that connects students to current practitioner mentors, the Luskin Lecture Series that brings prominent social and political figures to campus, and Global Public Affairs with its international certificate programs are initiatives organized and supported by the Dean’s Office. Together they enrich the intellectual, analytical, professional, and networking experiences, alongside practical skills training, for our MPP students.
Contacts
Department of Public Policy
Luskin School of Public Affairs
University of California Los Angeles
3250 Public Affairs Building
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1656
(310) 825-7667
Robert Fairlie
Department Chair
PublicPolicyChair@luskin.ucla.edu
Darin Christensen
Department Vice Chair
darinc@luskin.ucla.edu
310-825-7196
Stacey Yukari Hirose
Manager (Faculty, AP, and Finance)
stacey@luskin.ucla.edu
(310) 794-5050
Anna Lim
Director of Recruitment and Student Success
anna@luskin.ucla.edu
310-206-3148
Ronaldo Avina
Academic Program Coordinator
ronaldo@luskin.ucla.edu
(310) 825-7667
