The Policy Studies Major trains students to investigate and design meaningful and appropriate solutions for the social, economic, environmental, and technical grand challenges of our time. We confront these challenges from multiple perspectives and through examining bridging conventional with the unconventional.
Students in our program work alongside faculty, as well as independently, to advance knowledge of these challenges and develop just and sustainable solutions to them. Our areas of expertise, which are postured globally, are: design for social justice, policy evaluation, the economics of inequality, the environment, sustainability, and systems thinking.
Why study at WPI? As an undergraduate you study with renowned program faculty from across campus to form a meaningful interdisciplinary perspective on global grand challenges. You will collaborate with innovators in the fields of engineering, natural sciences, the social sciences, and humanities to fulfill WPI’s core mission: to create, discover, and convey knowledge at the frontiers of technological academic inquiry for the betterment of society. The experience will offer you the cross-cutting analytical frameworks and design skills to develop a systemic understanding of your skills and interests and their place in the community.
The program offers an undergraduate experience with areas of specialization and concentrations that reflect unique form of publicly engaged scholarship of our program, department, and WPI. Students who excel in their major may wish to consider pursuing our BS/BA/MS program in Science and Technology for Innovation in Global Development. This program offers students from all backgrounds a global perspective in areas ranging from data science and biomedical engineering, to business and entrepreneurship, international development, or health sciences
DEGREE OUTCOMES
In addition to fulfilling WPI’s university-wide undergraduate learning outcomes, Policy Studies Majors will demonstrate:
- Ability to conduct public policy analysis, technology assessment, or social impact analysis.
- Understanding of and ability to apply research methods in the social sciences.
- Ability to communicate effectively the results of a social analysis with policy implications in speech and writing.
- Understanding of the relationships between technology, policy, and the public interest in different societies.
- Ability to integrate understanding of science and technology into thinking on the social implications of science and technology.
- Ability to understand the impacts of government regulation on the future development of a technology or industry.
- Literacy in the technological aspects of policy issues in the student’s area of concentration.
- Ability to identify and appropriately consider ethical constraints during science and technology policy deliberations and decision-making.
Program Distribution Requirements for the Policy Studies Major
The normal period of residency at WPI is 16 terms. In addition to the WPI requirements applicable to all students, completion of a minimum of 9 2/3 units of study is required as follows:
Foundation Courses (5/3 Units)
Must include the courses below:
Basic Sciences (Minimum 3/3 Units)
Must include: one unit of basic science (CH, PH, BB, GE designations).
Core Courses (Minimum 9/3 Units)
Core courses comprise the heart of a WPI Policy Studies degree. To complete this requirement, a student will demonstrate policy analysis and methodological competency, as well as global perspective. Students may also choose to concentrate in a specific policy domain. Please see the interdisciplinary concentrations.
Global Perspective
Must include four thematic courses on a region, language, global justice, development, environment, or gender (two must be 2000-level or above and drawn from HUA or SSPS courses).
Science and Engineering Studies (Minimum 6/3 Units)
May be drawn from another major and must be at the 2000-level or above.