Part-time Study
Science, Technology and Public Policy
Program Overview
The MS degree in science, technology, and public policy emphasizes skills in quantitative and qualitative policy analysis as applied to contemporary science and technology based problems. The flexibility of the program allows students to select interdisciplinary specializations and learn to understand and analyze policy issues from multiple perspectives. As the world becomes increasingly systematically global, the need for policy analysts who are able to see beyond their specialization is now well recognized. Public policy graduates meet this need in such areas as environmental policy, information and communication policy, energy policy, biotechnology policy, and science and technology policy, among others. The curriculum takes advantage of RIT's exceptional science, technology, engineering, business, and liberal arts programs to develop an integrated, interdisciplinary course of study.
RIT's public policy program offers an innovative, interdisciplinary MS degree in science, technology, and public policy with an emphasis on engineering, science, and technology policy. The program builds on RIT's strengths as a technological university, enabling students to interact with faculty members and researchers who are working on scientific developments and technological innovations driving new public policy considerations.
The program is located in the College of Liberal Arts but draws significantly from disciplines and courses of study located in the other colleges, especially the Colleges of Business, Science, Engineering, and Applied Science and Technology. The program is geared toward graduates who will make significant contributions in the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors.
Curriculum Review
All students take a set of policy core courses that emphasize analysis, problem solving, and interdisciplinary approaches. Students work with an adviser to choose electives that focus their policy studies in a particular area, such as environmental policy, telecommunications policy, or energy policy. Typical students include those with science or engineering backgrounds looking to broaden their career opportunities in the government or business setting, as well as those with liberal arts undergraduate degrees (e.g., economics) interested in science, technology, and policy issues. Full-time students can typically finish the program in one to two years. The program prides itself on working one-on-one with students to ensure that their educational needs and academic goals are attained.
A minimum of 48 quarter credit hours are required for completion of the MS in science, technology and public policy.
The BS/MS student may obtain 12 quarter credit hours of graduate work in the fourth year of the BS curriculum. Thus, a BS/MS student would need to take only 36 hours in the fifth year.
Students transferring into the MS program from other BS degree programs at RIT or from outside the university may be required to complete an additional three-course policy analysis sequence (Policy Analysis I, II, and III) or demonstrate that they have equivalent skills for completion of the degree.
The graduate curriculum has a required five-course core: Readings in Public Policy (0521-700), Advanced Theory and Methods in Policy Analysis (0521-701), Evaluation Research (0521-702), Public Administration and Management (0521-709), and Science, Technology, and Policy (0508-740). In addition, students will choose five courses within their area of specialization. Students also are required to successfully complete a master’s thesis.
Required core courses:
0521-700 Seminar: Readings in Public Policy
0521-701 Seminar: Advanced Theory and Methods in Public Policy
0521-702 Seminar: Evaluation Research
0508-740 Science, Technology, and Policy
0521-709 Public Administration and Management
Elective courses
The student may choose five elective courses based on their interests, career goals, and offerings. Courses may be offered in various colleges throughout the university, including the colleges of Business, Science, Engineering, and Applied Science and Technology. Course selection is done jointly with a faculty adviser and typically is aimed at developing a specialized area of interest for the student (e.g., biotechnology policy, environmental policy, energy policy, communications policy).
Example elective courses include:
0521-708 Technological Innovation and Public Policy
0521-751 Energy Policy
0521-710 Information and Communication Policy
0521-706 Qualitative Policy Analysis
0521-749 Special Topics in Public Policy
0102-749 Introduction to Technology Management
0614-780 Telecommunication Policy
0508-484 Environmental Policy
4002-873 Information Technology and Strategic Opportunity
0630-770 Risk Assessment and Management
0307-772 Applied Survey Design and Analysis
0102-745 Social and Political Environment of Business
0511-711 Microeconomics for Graduate Students
0511-750 Benefit-Cost Analysis
0511-757 Applied Econometrics
0511-766 Health Care Policy
0511-781 Environmental Economics
0511-784 Natural Resource Economics
Admission Requirements
Two options are available to students interested in the MS degree in science, technology and public policy.
Students may enter the program from the public policy BS program and earn a combined BS/MS in five years. To be admitted into the graduate portion of the BS/MS track, a student must receive permission of the department and meet the following criteria:
Students seeking admission to the MS program from other RIT programs, or from outside the university, should meet the following requirements:
Prerequisites
Calculus and statistics courses (Students may be required to take a data analysis or statistics course and an introductory calculus course if not taken previously.)