Best Political Economy graduate certificate programs - Updated 2020

Students who successfully complete all course requirements will be awarded a Certificate in IPE and a transcript by the University of Chicago.

This field provides students with a degree of flexibility to tailor the certificate to their specific interests. Students will have three options, drawing from each of the three departments, from which they will choose one course: MTH 217 (Mathematical Modeling in Political Science) covers some game theory, social choice theory, and power indices, PSC ECO 288 (Intro to Game Theory) covers the general types of games, their representations, and equilibrium (solution) concepts, and ECO 207 (Microeconomics) exposes students to the fundamentals of rational decision-making in exchange environments (markets). For the certificate to be truly interdisciplinary, students need a strong foundation in both the tools for analysis and their application. For this reason, students will additionally choose three approved classes in Political Science and Economics, with at least one from each department. Classes satisfying the certificate program requirements 4 and 5:.

This Online Certificate in Political Economy is offered by the Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. It is designed for students interested in learning modern capitalist economies and feasible alternative futures. University of Massachusetts-Amherst department is quite unique in offering courses in a wide range of areas including critical political economy, development economics, the environment, international economics, and economic history. This certificate is a good opportunity to delve into these wide-ranging areas, while also engaging with various approaches to economics from mainstream to heterodox perspectives. In this certificate, students start with a critical introduction to economics (Econ 103). Then, we lay the foundation of the political economy approach, which examines interaction of the economic, political and cultural features of a society (Econ 105). Then we offer a critique of the capitalist system using alternative frameworks (Econ 205). Students are then allowed to take a range of electives on various economic, political and social issues, while also engaging with the theme of environment and climate change (Econ 308). Admission to the Certificate Program is open, and anyone with a high school education can enroll. The candidate does not have to be a UMass Amherst student. There are no formal pre-requisites to for the certificate, although individual courses may have pre-requisites.

The School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences awards master degrees in Applied Sociology, Criminology, Economics, Geospatial Information Sciences (jointly with the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics), International Political Economy, Justice Administration and Leadership, Political Science, Public Affairs, and Public Policy and PhD in Criminology, Economics, Geospatial Information Sciences (jointly with the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science and the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics), Political Science, Public Affairs, and Public Policy and Political Economy. Each degree program offers a rigorous foundation with enough flexibility to specialize and earn additional certification in city planning, crime and justice analysis, economic and demographic data analysis, evaluation research, geographic information systems, geospatial intelligence, local government management, nonprofit management, and remote sensing. These certificate programs are available to degree-seeking as well as non-degree students seeking highly focused curricula that can benefit their professional development.