Mission

The Center for Public Policy and Administration (CPPA) is the hub of interdisciplinary public policy research, teaching, and engagement at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. CPPA teaches and conducts rigorous research to realize social change and solve problems for the common good. CPPA faculty and alumni are effective policy leaders from the local to the global levels in addressing topics such as family and care policy, environmental issues, emerging technologies, social inequalities, and governance.


History

CPPA celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2008. The Center grew out of an earlier public administration master’s program in the political science department. In the mid-1990s, Dean Glen Gordon of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences (CSBS) commissioned a group to develop a new interdisciplinary program that would combine public policy analysis with public management skills. In 1998, we accepted our first class of students into the new CPPA program. While still housed in CSBS, CPPA is now truly an interdisciplinary program, with faculty from three colleges and ten departments.


Academic programs

CPPA offers the following academic programs:

• Full- and part-time Master of Public Policy and Administration (MPPA) programs
• Accelerated Master of Public Policy (MPP) program for Five College students
• Public policy and administration certificate program for University of Massachusetts undergraduate students