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Course catalogue

Find individual courses here or browse the curricula of our graduate and executive programmes.
For the PhD programmes, please find more information here.

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Master of Public Policy Master of International Affairs Master of Data Science for Public Policy

Political Economy of European Integration

Course-ID: GRAD-E1490
Instructors: Ana Bobić

Abstract

 

The dominant narrative of European integration is that of a war-shattered continent coming together to build a peace project through market integration, sustained on liberal-democratic values. A critical counter-narrative sees the EU as a neoliberal organisation embedded in the international economic order, creating winners and losers along the way. Taking that critique seriously, this course looks at the political economy of European integration as a dialectical process best understood in its historical context. 

We will look at the EU’s founding as part of the post-WWII Bretton Woods consensus; the development of the internal market in the 80s following the global neoliberal turn; the creation of the Economic and Monetary Union in the early 90s and ordoliberalism; the eastward expansion of the EU in 2004 onwards and social dumping; and the unprecedented rise in socioeconomic inequality after the Euro crisis. These lessons will inform our analysis of the EU’s current challenges and policy orientation. While moving through the EU’s history, this course will zoom in on the relevant debates in critical theory, particularly Marxist, feminist, and intersectional critique. The overall goal of the course is to understand the relationship between politics and economics in European integration and its redistributive effects.

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Executive MPA Executive training

Power & Influence: Leadership in Action

Course-ID: EMPA-C1005
Instructors: Joanna Kusiak

Abstract

 

In a world in which most organizations, communities, and societies face enormous challenges, leadership is critical. This course gets to the core of leadership and getting things done. Power and Influence is a course for those of you who want to make things happen, despite the obstacles that might stand in your way. It is about understanding power dynamics and learning to use them as effective tools for analyzing your surroundings and achieving your goals. During the course, we intend to unearth your implicit theories and feelings about power and influence. These have a profound impact on how you perceive problems and opportunities, and subsequently, how you decide upon particular courses of action.

Main Topics and Learning Objectives:

This course includes conceptual models, self-assessment tools and simulation exercises to help you develop your own influence style and understand political dynamics as they unfold around you. The course provides you with the opportunity to observe effective and ineffective uses of power in different organizational contexts and career stages. By design, this course will challenge you to define for yourself what will constitute the responsible exercise of power and influence in your life. The objectives of the course are to help you:

Develop a conceptual framework for understanding power and influence. You should be able to define power and influence and begin to appreciate how essential they are for your own career.

Practice diagnostic skills that will enable you to map out the political landscape, understand others' perspectives and power bases, and learn to predict and influence their actions.

Assess your own power bases and develop your own strategy for building and exercising power and influence ethically and responsibly.

Teaching Methods:

The course relies on a mix of traditional case studies, biographical case studies of historical figures, exercises/simulations, films, and guest visits. The exposure to the development and use of power in many different social settings and at various points in history allows a comprehensive analysis of power in action.

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Master of Public Policy Master of International Affairs Master of Data Science for Public Policy

Professional Writing for Public Policy

Course-ID: GRAD-SW1038
Instructors: Sebastian Gallander

Abstract

 

Whether you will work in government, in an NGO, a political party, parliamentary staff or a think tank you will always strive to put forward public policy ideas. Public policy ideas however, can only really succeed when their goals get recognized and understood by the public. Therefore, they need to be explained clearly to the news media. To that end, policy-makers should package their ideas into one of the two main products that can be processed by journalists and editors: the press release and the article. The press release is written like an objective, factual report highlighting the new aspects of the policy idea and putting it into the larger political context. The article (often referred to as Op-Ed) gives a strong, well-argued opinion about the policy idea and is supposed to be published under the name of the policy-maker may it be in the New York Times or at huffingtonpost.com.

Of course, offering these two products to the media does not guarantee that they will cover it and that your policy idea will be readily embraced by the public. But it gives you a fair chance to make your voice heard. Hence, everyone working in public policy should be confident in structuring her thoughts like this and writing them down in an easy-to-comprehend fashion. To prepare you for this, the course will teach you the basic techniques of these two types of texts. At the same time, it aims to help you sharpening your writing skills overall. Eventually, this course should also strengthen your sense of developing storylines and narratives that resonate with the public.

Note: This course is not an English-Language-Class and it is not about academic writing.

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Master of Public Policy Master of International Affairs Master of Data Science for Public Policy

Psychology for Policy Analysis & Implementation

Course-ID: GRAD-E1353
Instructors: Ruth Ditlmann

Abstract

 

The course covers how basic concepts from behavioural research in social psychology and judgment and decision making can shape policy formulation and implementation. Central themes include a detailed analysis of human judgment and decision making, and how a variety of motives and situational forces can affect people choices and behaviour. Combined, these topics have important implications for policy design that affects individuals as well as the functioning of the organizations that determine those policies. Lecture material is drawn from basic psychological research and from behaviourally-informed policy analysis. Students work with the instructor and each other to identify the relevance of this material for policy and management through discussion and a final paper.

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Master of Public Policy Master of International Affairs Master of Data Science for Public Policy

Psychology of Inter-Group Relations

Course-ID: GRAD-E1395
Instructors: Ruth Ditlmann

Abstract

 

This course introduces students to psychological theories of prejudice and intergroup relations, with an emphasis on applying these theories to public policy. After learning what empirical methods and assumptions guide the social psychological study of intergroup relations (mostly different experimental paradigms), we will review classic and contemporary theory and research on intergroup relations and prejudice from social psychology. While the core of this research is US-based, we will read empirical articles testing these theories in different countries, pertaining to different group dynamics, whenever possible. At the end of the course, we will focus on applications of such theory and research to pressing social issues, such as anti-prejudice interventions in different settings (education, media etc.) and post-conflict reconciliation.

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Executive MPA Executive training

Public Affairs

Course-ID: EMPA-SC-29
Instructors: Caroline King

Abstract

 

This intensive two-day workshop is designed for professionals looking to enhance their knowledge of public affairs and government relations. Through interactive sessions, case studies, and hands-on exercises, participants will learn:

  • The basics of policy analysis and advocacy campaigns
  • Stakeholder engagement to build and manage relationships with policymakers
  • Strategies for navigating public affairs challenges and mitigate risks
  • How to develop and implement effective public affairs strategies.

Key topics include lobbying frameworks, audience mapping, crisis management, and measuring success. This skills course provides actionable insights and practical skills.

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Master of Public Policy

Public Management

Course-ID: GRAD-C3
Instructors: Salvador Parrado

Abstract

 

Public policymaking relies on organisations, which perform different roles. On the one hand, ministries and central agencies make the policies by drafting bills, negotiating with interest groups or designing regulations. On the other hand, public agencies, private sector organisations and NGOs deliver public services and implement public policies. This course is about the design and operation of these organisations that matter for public policy. The course introduces concepts that: Help students understand how these organisations shape the design and implementation of public policies and how they can, in turn, be governed. Engage with controversies regarding the design and operation of public organisations, such as the (dis)advantages of using market-type mechanisms to govern public services.

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Master of Public Policy Master of International Affairs Master of Data Science for Public Policy

Public Policy & Demographic Change

Course-ID: GRAD-E1182
Instructors: Michaela Kreyenfeld

Abstract

 

Demographic ageing and population change are pressing problems in a growing number of countries. This course introduces participants to core demographic theories, data, measures, and methods. We will learn how to calculate and correctly interpret demographic indicators such as the fertility rate, the mortality rate, and measures that can be derived from migration statistics. Moreover, we will learn how to conduct population projections (using the cohort-component model). There is also time devoted to debating policy-relevant themes. For example, is population decline a challenge for local and national governments? Should we worry about the world's population continuing to grow in the face of climate change? What would be appropriate policies to address the challenges that come with demographic ageing and population decline?

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Master of Public Policy Master of International Affairs Master of Data Science for Public Policy

Public Service in a Digital Age

Course-ID: GRAD-E1375
Instructors: Gerhard Hammerschmid

Abstract

 

Governments are becoming increasingly digitalised. With such changes and transformations, the skills and experiences that are needed to work in a new digitalized public service are also changing. In this course, students will be provided with a comprehensive overview on the current and future trends of digital government, and gain experience in eight core competencies associated with the public service in the digital era (users, risks, multidisciplinary, iteration, barriers, openness, data, and affordances). The course will provide students with an initial overview of digital government and digital transformation to serve as a foundation for the future lessons. Following this, students will be exposed to a number of different key aspects of digital government from service design to bureaucracy to procurement. The course goes beyond the common normative and technocentric approach that technology and digitalisation are inherently good, and offers a critical discussion on the positives and negatives of digitalisation. Students will be encouraged to think critically throughout the course and will be exposed to both sides of the debate when it comes to digital government, allowing them to understand and unravel the most commonly occurring debates when it comes to digitalisation.

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Master of Public Policy Master of International Affairs Master of Data Science for Public Policy

Qualitative Research: Design, Fieldwork, Methods

Course-ID: GRAD-E1471
Instructors: Christine Reh

Abstract

 

This course is designed for students who aim to use and apply qualitative and/or mixed methods in their research projects and who aim to expand their practical skill set from research design to the translation of results for policy-makers. The course covers four areas. First, we will explore the foundations of social science research, with a focus on concepts and measurement. Second, we will address the fundamentals of small-n and mixed-methods research, including comparative design, the case study, and process-tracing. Third, the course introduces specific research techniques including interviews, archival research, participant observation, and index-building. Finally, we will look at issues of ethics, access, and research transparency. Throughout the course, we will discuss, evaluate, and critique research designs, and we will practice the application of qualitative and/or mixed methods in students own project - in academia, and in view of future employment in the world of policy and practice.

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Executive MPA Executive training

Scenario-Building & Foresight

Course-ID: EMPA-SC-16
Instructors: Oliver Gnad

Abstract

 

Decision-making in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world can quickly become a costly and risky endeavo - especially in the realm of foreign and security affairs. To lower risks in decision-making, to widen decision maker's perspectives and to provide them with policy options, Foresight Analysis is one of the most powerful analytic methods in an analyst's quiver. Foresight Analysis helps analysts and political advisors to undertake estimative analysis, which involves thinking systematically about the various ways the future is likely to unfold and what is most likely to determine the eventual outcome. The objective of Foresight Analysis is not to predict the future, but to generate a solid set of scenarios that can bound the range of plausible alternative futures. Foresight Analysis is most useful when a situation is complex and the outcomes too uncertain to trust a single prediction. It has proven highly effective in helping analysts, decision makers, and policymakers contemplate multiple futures, challenge their assumptions, and anticipate surprise developments by identifying "unknown unknowns", i.e. factors, forces, or players that one did not realize were important or influential before commencing the exercise.

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Master of Public Policy Master of International Affairs Master of Data Science for Public Policy

Shadow Institutions: Secret Services in Democracies

Course-ID: GRAD-E1491
Instructors: Dieter Gosewinkel

Abstract

 

Secret services are a central institution of modern states, but their activities are still predominantly carried out in the shadows. This applies to authoritarian states, but also to democracies. The course deals with the history of secret services after 1945, when the protection of the individual in international and national law gained great momentum in a phase of juridification. It concentrates predominantly on democratic states, although dictatorships are used as comparative and counter-examples on a case-by-case basis. The focus is on democracies in the USA, France and Germany, with Brazil, India and Israel being considered as comparative cases. The structure, functioning, actors and actions of the central secret services of these democracies are the focus of the course. The guiding question is the relationship between the legal and public-democratic need for control on the one hand, and the need for secrecy and the actual loss of control of secret service actions on the other.  To what extent are secret services a foreign body in a democratic constitutional state? How can secret services be legally controlled as far as possible without abolishing their function?

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