Public Policy and Opinion - Master's Year 2

Students in the PPO program in the Master's in Public Policy receive personalized supervision, particularly in the context of their thesis and individual or group assignments. The program is known for its use of innovative teaching formats, such as workshops and public conferences, ethnographic interviews (like at OECD), discussion of disciplinary debates, professional role play, and skills workshops on statistical software and 4-page pamphlet design (see INSEE for examples).   All courses are taught by faculty members in political science and sociology at IRISSO/Université Paris Dauphine - PSL, who are specialists in their field, and visiting speakers working in civil service, at public policy evaluation firms, in local communities, and at renowned polling institutes.
This program consists of 300 hours of instruction, spread out between the months of September and February. The program offers two integrated training opportunities: a professional track and a research track.

To make space for the internship and field work that are central to the program, courses are concentrated in the first semester, over four days from Monday to Thursday. They are a combination of instruction in core subjects, methodologies, electives, and an internship or research thesis. The ""Free Credits"" are seminars that take place in the ENS Department of Social Sciences; at the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales, or at any PSL institution (to be confirmed by the program directors at the start of the academic year).

Students will produce an internship or research thesis and defend it in front of the program's instructors in June (for doctoral candidates) or October.

Students must undertake a stage of at least four months' duration between March and December. This internship is required for students pursuing the professional track and optional for those pursuing the research track.

During their internship, students will be asked to develop qualitative and/or quantitative surveys, advise national organizations or local communities, evaluate public policy, and conduct research in social science and politics.

At the end of their internship, students are expected to produce an internship thesis, a structured reflection on a research area in political social science that draws from their internship experience. Students will defend their thesis in front of at least two of the program's faculty members in June or October.