HKS Introduces International and Global Affairs Concentration
by Tina Chong, Editor-in-Chief on September 17, 2008 in HKS News
Will IGA be a model for other concentrations?
The Kennedy School has introduced a new concentration in International and Global Affairs (IGA) for students starting the MPP program in the 2008-09 academic year. With an increase in the number of required courses and a broadening of policy areas under the concentration, IGA aims to provide a rigorous and interdisciplinary training for students interested in international and global affairs.
If successful, IGA may prove to be a model for concentrations in other policy areas.
“We at the Kennedy School do foreign affairs better than anybody else, and this new concentration will allow us to leverage our resources more effectively,” Prof. Ash Carter, chair of the IGA faculty, told the Citizen. “IGA is a response to the way issues are changing and interrelating in today’s complex world.”
The idea of creating concentrations around broader areas of policy was first recommended by HKS Dean David Ellwood and the faculty steering committee, who conducted a review of the school’s curriculum in July 2004.
“The committee talked about offering more breadth and depth to students by combining Policy Areas of Concentration (PACs) to create larger concentrations,” said Senior Associate Dean Joseph McCarthy. “IGA is a first step in this direction, a pilot program. If it succeeds, other PACs will soon be moving in this direction.”
Carter gathered faculty members in November 2005 to solicit ideas and feedback on what an international and global affairs concentration could look like at HKS. In Spring 2008, current MPPs were asked to evaluate the proposed IGA template.
IGA students must take three of four foundational courses and three additional IGA courses of their choice. In addition, they will have some flexibility in choosing an internationally-focused economics course as a substitute for the second semester of microeconomics currently required by the MPP core.
“Not having this type of concentration available has been a detriment to those of us who knew from day one that we wanted to pursue international affairs,” said Ronak Desai (MPP/JD). “MPP2s should be allowed to pursue IGA, especially if they have already fulfilled many of the requirements.”
The concentration is currently not open to returning MPPs.
“I wish I had started the MPP program later,” said Evan Maher (MPP2), one of the students who worked with Carter to refine IGA. “But even if I won’t have IGA on my diploma, it will be good for HKS to have that branding where people know you get the rigorous training in the field. I see it being beneficial for me five years down the line.”
Three PACs – International Security and Politics (ISP), Energy and Natural Resources (ENR), and Science, Technology, and Public Policy (STP) – have been folded into IGA and will no longer be available as separate policy concentrations.
“Of course, there’s a twinge of losing STP as its own separate concentration,” said Prof. John Holdren, director of the Science, Technology and Public Policy Program at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. “But I’m a proponent of interdisciplinary work, and I believe there will be great benefit from the symbiosis between the policy areas.”
Holdren also believes IGA will provide the benefit of expanding peer groups for students. “The excessive number of areas of concentration resulted in fragmentation,” he said. “PACs like STP really only had a few students every year, and it subtracted from the student experience.”
In 2007, 27 percent of graduating MPPs chose PACs in international security, energy policy, or science and technology policy. This year, interest in those fields is considerably higher, with 43 percent of MPP1s – about 105 students – already having declared IGA as their concentration. It remains to be seen whether IGA can sustain the high enrollment numbers, as students can opt into and out of the concentration at any time.
The success of IGA will likely determine the future of remaining PACs as faculty chairs of other policy areas consider moving towards a concentration model similar to IGA.
Prof. Tony Gomez-Ibanez, who heads the social policy area at HKS, has already begun working with faculty and students to design a potential curriculum for a social policy concentration. However, he is unsure if the IGA model will translate well for this policy area.
“Social policy is a little more diverse,” he said. “You have at least five PACs that would fall under the broad term of social policy, including criminal justice, health care policy, human resources, education, and labor policy, urban policy, and political and economic development. Foundational courses that appeal to all these areas are harder to determine.”
Gomez-Ibanez will continue to lead discussions around the creation of the social policy concentration. Meanwhile, he – and others around the school – will be following IGA closely throughout the year.
“Everyone’s kind of curious about it,” said Carter. “They want to know, is it a good thing? It remains to be seen.”
Written by Tina Chong, Editor-in-Chief · Filed Under HKS News
Tina Chong is a second-year master in public policy student at the Kennedy School. After receiving her undergraduate degree from Yale, she worked in both the private and non-profit sectors and helped to start up City Year, an AmeriCorps program, in her hometown of Los Angeles. Tina currently serves as the editor-in-chief of the Citizen.
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