Masters Degree in Political Management

Eine Studierende des Studiengangs Politikmanagement während eines Referats.

A Masters-Student during a seminar presentation

The Masters degree in “Political Management , Public Policy and Public Administration ” is a two-year program that prepares students both to understand complex policy problems and to design concrete solutions. The full-time Master Programme is offered by the Institute for Political Science at the University of Duisburg-Essen.

The curriculum includes instruments and techniques for organizational, communicational and managerial skills and equips students with core competencies in problem analysis and problem solving.

The Curriculum of the Masters degree

The Master-Programme thoroughly prepares graduate students for demanding tasks in politics, public administration, media and the economy:

Decision Analysis: Students are trained to prepare and to make decisions. They will learn about techniques that will enable them to make decisions under conditions of uncertainty, risk and high pressure.
Negotiation: Professionals can only very rarely make isolated decisions, but instead, they need to work together with other actors – most of the time in controversial, sometimes in adverse situations. Interactive forms of decision-making are therefore a key component of the curriculum.
Representation: Students should be able to weigh out the costs and benefits of certain policy decisions, taking into close account criteria such as leadership, ethics and democratic legitimacy.
Political and strategic action: Apart from solving tangible policy-problems, students will learn how to strategically enforce and communicate political decisions. Therefore, students will learn to combine and apply both dimensions – the production of policies (“policy-making”) and the communication of policies (“policy representation”).
Public policy implementation design: Students will learn the structural, procedural and participatory patterns of public policy and public services as well as the possibilities of (re)designing policies and services.

New perspectives through qualification

Key skills for responsible professional positions in politics, associations, businesses and government are passed onto the Students in the Masters-Programme. Excellency in Education is our mission statement – applied policy research is the approach of the NRW School of Governance.

The analytical penetration of the European multi-level system , the characteristics of administrative action , the imperatives of political communication and the techniques of political leadership stand at the center of the curriculum of the Master’s program. Students will gain an understanding of the “mediation triangle” of governance, public communication and mechanisms for the consolidation of public power. In combination with the procedural character of political decision-making processes this triangle lays out the theoretical foundation and the brand essence of the NRW School of Governance.

Theoretical and practical knowledge of these interactions are an essential component for leadership positions in politics and the public sector.

Our philosophy concerning tuition fees

The NRW School of Governance is an institution with a distinct scientific and social-educational mission. Therefore we offer an excellent academic training and curriculum without separate tuition fees.