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Study postgraduate online through Open Universities Australia. Explore all degrees, subjects and short courses now.

This program equips professionals who work with policy or in policy roles with the skills needed to respond to the complex challenges and rapidly evolving demands of policy analysis, design and implementation. The research- led and industry engaged program draws on current thinking and real-life examples to significantly build the professional skills of those in the public and private sector. Whether you already work in government at local, state or national level, or you work with government and want to understand what drives and influences decision-making, this degree will equip you with a sophisticated understanding of how 21st Century policy-making and governance works.Upon successful completion of the graduate certificate you will be eligible for 40 credit points of advanced standing towards the Master of Public Administration (5580).

Meet the demands of working in policy or in policy roles. Respond to the rapidly evolving demands of policy design and implementation. Work on real life examples, and engage with current thinking, and 21st century policy-making and governance.

Graduate Certificate in Policy Analysis

With its dual focus on policy analysis and applied social research, the Master of Public and Social policy (OUA) is a unique and innovative course in Australia. Through your studies, you will develop a deep knowledge of how policy is shaped, as well as the skills to help you analyse, design and deliver effective policy solutions to serve the public interest. You will also acquire the knowledge and skills to engage with and undertake research addressing global challenges facing contemporary societies, including sustainable communities, welfare reform, immigration, population health, drugs and alcohol.

Take a dual focus towards policy and social research. Learn how policy is shaped, before gaining skills to design and deliver your own. Use research to address sustainable communities, welfare, immigration, population health and more.

Master of Public and Social Policy

The Graduate Certificate of Public Policy provides knowledge and professional skills for those who wish to broaden and deepen their general or technical skills in public policy. The Graduate Certificate provides students with a wide menu of choice of Crawford School master degree courses. Students who are thinking of later proceeding on to a Master degree should consider the course-selection requirements appropriate to the various Master degrees. Course advising is available to help with these choices.

Discover the concepts and tools for designing and implementing public policy. You’ll explore policy approaches to complex challenges like public health, immigration, and education. Get to know the key players in policy making—and what your role might be.

Graduate Certificate of Public Policy

This program provides the necessary breadth and depth of public management skills to advance your career both within the public sector and in the increasingly important area of the private-public sector interface.Experts from across the Griffith Business School teach into the program, drawing on a wide-range of discipline knowledge applied to both business and government contexts. The teaching team consists of academics with experience working in a variety of governmental roles and those at the cutting edge of public sector research and analysis.A public administration qualification is globally recognised and this program is designed to fit around your busy professional and personal schedules.This program includes a dissertation option. The dissertation can provide a pathway to a higher degree by research for candidates with the qualifying <abbr title="Grade Point Average">GPA</abbr>.

Advance your career in the public sector. Fit study in around your existing personal and professional schedule. Understand the importance of the private and public sector interface. Apply your knowledge across business and government contexts.

Master of Public Administration

This specialisation provides students with deep and comprehensive understanding of the nature and challenges of social policy within nations and globally. Multidisciplinary in nature, this specialisation will provide insight into key theories, principles and approaches, providing a foundation for social policy analysis, development and implementation across a range of contexts. The social policy specialisation equips students with an understanding of the key actors engaged in social policy making – including the growing influence of ‘non-traditional’ actors. Through electives, students in this specialisation can explore a wide range of issues relevant to social policy development and implementation, such as the boundaries of social policy; influences on social policy, including demographic and labour force trends; how social policy intersects with other aspects of government policy; and debates about financing of welfare programmes, inequality and income distribution, wellbeing and social justice, in Australia and internationally.This specialisation offers opportunities for advanced investigation of the analytical skills, public policies and organisational practices appropriate for advising on social policy and managing program outcomes. It is well-suited for those in social policy development and/or implementation in government and non-government sectors.

Would you like to advise on social policy-making for the government and NGOs? This specialisation may be for you. Explore social policy including challenges in financing of welfare programs, inequality, social justice and more.  

Master of Public Policy: Social Policy Specialisation

This degree examines the processes, institutions and practices of public policy. It is designed for graduates interested in pursuing a career in, or currently working in, public policy within or outside of government. Core courses provide students with a solid foundation in policy processes, governance institutions, policy analysis and research.The degree also equips students with important skills for analysing and researching public policy, and communicating persuasively on policy relevant matters. Through interactive and case-based teaching, students debate and reflect on the challenges of governing public policy in a dynamic, interconnected, global and increasingly digital world. Designed and taught by world-class public policy scholars from the Crawford School of Public Policy at ANU, this Masters degree equips graduates for successful and productive careers in public policy.

Learn critical thinking and problem-solving through case-based teaching. Reflect on the challenges of governing in an increasingly digital world. Get equipped with skills in analysing and researching public policy, and communicating persuasively. 

Master of Public Policy

The Graduate Certificate in Public Management qualifies professionals seeking to start or advance their careers in public purpose-driven organisations including government agencies, advocacy groups, national and international not-for-profits and international bodies, such as the United Nations and World Health Organization. The program will equip graduates with skills and expertise to navigate the public, private or not-for-profit sectors characterised by increasing uncertainty, digital transformation, and organisational innovation. The Certificate provides a pathway for future study into the Master of Public Administration.

Prepare for leadership roles in government, advocacy groups, national and international institutions. You’ll develop new skills in communication, teamwork, and ethical leadership. Study online with experts at the Crawford School of Public Policy.

Graduate Certificate of Public Management

This specialisation engages students in the communicative aspects of public policy. Students examine how actors both within and outside government seek to communicate, advocate and participate in the policy process. Particular emphasis is given to the form and nature of policy communication, persuasion, public engagement, and public talk. Students study the principles of effective policy communication, persuasion and participatory policy making including policy argumentation, rhetoric, inclusion, participation, representation and legitimacy. ﻿Through applied examples and cases students consider the practicalities, challenges and politics involved in realising these ideals in contemporary governance. Students will reflect critically on how the communicative landscape of public policy is changing in an era of digital technology and 24/7 news cycles. Electives provide a variety of courses through which students can deepen their knowledge of how actors communicate, campaign and talk in contemporary public policy.

Enhance your skills in policy making and public service delivery through the art of communication. Learn the principles of policy communication and persuasion so that you can lead improvements in policy and create the outcomes you desire.  

Master of Public Policy: Policy Communication Specialisation

The Graduate Certificate of Environmental and Resource Economics will equip you with tools in economic analysis and the skills to apply them to key issues in environmental and resource economics. You will gain an understanding of markets, policies, and how to analyse environmental and resource economic challenges in Australia and internationally. Join an internationally-renowned network of leading economic practitioners and researchers at Crawford School of Public Policy.

Explore economics and its role managing natural resources including water and energy. You’ll use economic tools to analyse human interactions with the environment. Investigate where climate change sits in core economic policy.

Graduate Certificate of Environmental and Resource Economics

The Master of Public Policy aims to provide students with a thorough grounding in public policy. It also aims to teach students how to undertake and/or interpret research in this area. The Master of Public Policy requires 2 years of full-time study (or the equivalent part-time). The course is offered by the College of Business, Government and Law.

Become a public policy expert and pursue executive career opportunities. Within the context of current challenges in the economy and society, you’ll build your research and analysis skills, and develop policy that contributes to the public good.

Health Systems and Services

Politics, Power and Policy

Health Policy and Decision Making

Health Law, Ethics and Policy

Politics, Power and Public Policy

Drugs, Governance and Modern Society

Diversity at Work: Access, Equity and Policy

Criminology and Public Policy

Introduction to Politics and Policy

Law, Policy and Community

This subject was previously known as HTHM801 Health Policy.
This subject provides a comprehensive understanding of the government&#39;s roles of policy development and decision making related to improving population&#39;s health. The subject introduces students to explore factors that influence policy and decision-making processes and their implications for the health sector. It covers the theoretical frameworks for understanding and analysing how health policies and decisions develop, change and get implemented. It explores the technical nature of health policy and decision-making processes (agenda setting, policy formulation, decision making, implementation, evaluation and policy change) and the political nature of understanding the power and influence of policy actors. The subject also helps students to develop skills in engaging stakeholders, coordinating the development and implementation of government policies and decisions; and managing policy evaluation and change.
Please Note: If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.
Find out more about the <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/rights/academic-integrity/aip/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Examine health policy and process in national healthcare settings. Develop capacity through research, teaching and sharing knowledge. Compare key health topics.Explore the social causes, values and trends shaping Australia’s national health policy.

This subject was previously known as SOCX830 Doing Social Survey Research.This is a subject in applied survey research and data analysis. It will explain key survey techniques used and give you the chance to try them out in practice. The unit covers choosing survey methods, administering surveys and writing good survey questions. It also looks at some of the debates around the potentials and limits of surveys. Qualitative researchers often rely on surveys to prepare themselves for fieldwork or to &#39;triangulate&#39; their results from interview work. But ultimately, surveys are designed to enable statistical analysis of data, and therefore the unit covers some of the statistical techniques used. Understanding how quantitative analytical methods work with and augment qualitative methods requires some knowledge and use of statistics and a statistical package.

Doing Social Survey Research

This subject focuses on how policy is made and who makes it.Taking an international perspective, the subject introduces students to the policy process, the state and societal actors that cooperate (and fight) over policy and to the context in which they operate. Students will engage in peer learning, discuss cases studies as well as write on policy issues using the materials and concepts presented in the subject.

Advanced Introduction to Policy

This subject was previously known as GEOX802 Social Impact Assessment and Cross-Cultural Negotiation.Social impact assessment (SIA) is an important assessment tool which applies social science methodologies to the evaluation of a wide range of public policy proposals, including those relating to land use planning, social policies and public health. This unit addresses the theory and methods of SIA, discusses the public policy processes which use this assessment, and applies a critical perspective to the ethical dilemmas facing the SIA practitioner. There is a practical focus to the course work through the use of current case studies, and this provides students with an insight into pressures and political difficulties frequently encountered. Students will learn how to recognise and respond to these problems, and present issues to non-specialist audiences.

Understand how social impact assessment can help stakeholders with different world-views find common ground.Explore the difficulties that can arise during cross-cultural negotiations. Pick apart case studies that deal with issues like native title.

Social Impact Assessment

In this subject you will develop the knowledge and skills needed to undertake planning for protected area systems. We will explore the frameworks, processes and methods used to identify areas for inclusion in national reserve systems. Students will have the opportunity to apply and compare reserve selection methods using Tasmania as a case study. Topics covered include system purposes and priorities; national reserve planning frameworks; systematic conservation planning; government reserve selection processes; and collaborative and participatory approaches. Students without prior experience in GIS and spatial analysis will be given a basic introduction to these skills. Note, the software taught in this course works best with a Microsoft operating system. There is an optional on campus weekend tutorial session for students to complete the technical training on university computers. For those wanting more instruction for the technical aspects this session, or who use a Mac as their personal computer for learning, the on campus weekend session is recommended.

Reserve System Planning

This subject provides students with a practical understanding of key systems for protected area planning and management. Terrestrial, freshwater and marine protected areas are considered. The global context of protected areas is analysed, including issues of definition, scope and governance. As governance processes provide the institutional structures within which planning and management occurs, particular attention is given to public, private, community and collaborative arrangements. Systems and associated methods for addressing complexity, sustainable finance, management effectiveness, community engagement and landscape/seascape scale management are then considered. These topics are explored by drawing on the experiences of practitioners, case study examples and fieldwork.

Protected Area Planning and Management Systems

This subject was previously known as Health Policy in an Australian Context.This subject provides students with an overview of key health policy and public health issues. In addition to general content the subject includes a specific focus on health care and public policy in Australia. It considers the political, economic, social, behavioural and epidemiological contexts within which health is managed and the forces that promote and oppose change.Please Note: All students studying at Murdoch University will need to complete the compulsory unit, Murdoch Academic Passport (MAP100), which only takes 2-3 hours to complete online. Find out more: <a href="http://goto.murdoch.edu.au/MurdochAcademicPassport" target="_blank">http://goto.murdoch.edu.au/MurdochAcademicPassport</a>.

Get a broad understanding of health policy in Australia. Learn how parts of society such as politics and economics affect how policies come to be, and change. Look at real life policies to unpack issues in governance and leadership in health.

Health Policy in Australia and Beyond

This unit examines a range of issues relevant to the understanding of how policies are made in increasingly entwined national and international contexts, considering international and domestic institutions and actors. Assessment will be based on constructive and informed participation, tests on the readings and a research paper. The unit will be taught as a series of modules that may include: Select critical topics framing contemporary policy-making, such as migration flows, climate change, populism, national and global inequalities, austerity, liberalisation and digitalisation. International policy actors and institutions, contexts and modes of governance, including policy transfer processes. Policy-making in non-democracies and democratization processes, political economy of welfare states Varieties of capitalism

Making Public Policy in a Globalised World

Policies embody ideas about what governments can and should do, and how. These ideas &#39;frame&#39; the problems policies address and how those problems will be solved. Policy ideas vary between policy domains and between countries and they change over time. Policy ideas are mobilised and contested by policy actors seeking changes that align with their own interests or those of their constituencies. When new ideas enter the policy process, they may offer genuinely novel solutions to old problems or renew the attractiveness of discarded approaches. New ideas can also function as solutions in search of problems. In this unit, students study policy documents and research resources to gain a critical understanding of how ideas can frame the definition of policy problems and their solutions. Because policy ideas travel, the unit considers the mechanisms and actors involved in what researchers call policy transfer or policy mobilities. The unit is taught as a series of modules, each exploring the history, contours and impacts of one of a broad-ranging set of ideas that has come into public and social policy in recent decades. Ideas in focus may include a subset of: brain and mind sciences, New Public Management, big data and governance by algorithm, social investment and asset-based social policy, partnership, sustainability, resilience, and well-being.

Policy Ideas in Focus: Framing Policy Problems

This subject was previously known as SOCX831 Qualitative Methods for Policy.
Social research is critical for evidence based policy making. This unit canvasses the use of qualitative research to inform public and social policy. Students will develop skills in conducting qualitative research and how it contributes to policy processes. This includes designing and conducting qualitative research and working with existing qualitative data to develop policy. The course will be structured around four modules. The first examines qualitative research designs for policy. The second introduces students to qualitative research methods and analysis, including qualitative analysis of policy documents. The third applies this knowledge to policy processes, including finding and using existing qualitative data sets; qualitative research as consultation; and the uses and misuses of citizen perspectives in policy processes. The unit concludes by considering how qualitative and quantitative data can be combined as policy evidence. Throughout, the unit will include expert speakers from the non-profit, government and academic sectors to provide insider perspectives on the use of qualitative data for policy making and to discuss the politics of research utilization. By undertaking this course, students will develop advanced skills in undertaking qualitative research and be able to apply these skills in a range of policy settings.

Qualitative Methods for Policy

Curtin University

This subject was previously known as SOCX830 Doing Social Survey Research.

This is a subject in applied survey research and data analysis. It will explain key survey techniques used and give you the chance to try them out in practice. The unit covers choosing survey methods, administering surveys and writing good survey questions. It also looks at some of the debates around the potentials and limits of surveys. Qualitative researchers often rely on surveys to prepare themselves for fieldwork or to 'triangulate' their results from interview work. But ultimately, surveys are designed to enable statistical analysis of data, and therefore the unit covers some of the statistical techniques used. Understanding how quantitative analytical methods work with and augment qualitative methods requires some knowledge and use of statistics and a statistical package.

Macquarie University

This subject focuses on how policy is made and who makes it.Taking an international perspective, the subject introduces students to the policy process, the state and societal actors that cooperate (and fight) over policy and to the context in which they operate. Students will engage in peer learning, discuss cases studies as well as write on policy issues using the materials and concepts presented in the subject.

In this subject you will develop the knowledge and skills needed to undertake planning for protected area systems. We will explore the frameworks, processes and methods used to identify areas for inclusion in national reserve systems. Students will have the opportunity to apply and compare reserve selection methods using Tasmania as a case study. Topics covered include system purposes and priorities; national reserve planning frameworks; systematic conservation planning; government reserve selection processes; and collaborative and participatory approaches. Students without prior experience in GIS and spatial analysis will be given a basic introduction to these skills. Note, the software taught in this course works best with a Microsoft operating system. There is an optional on campus weekend tutorial session for students to complete the technical training on university computers. For those wanting more instruction for the technical aspects this session, or who use a Mac as their personal computer for learning, the on campus weekend session is recommended.

University of Tasmania

This subject provides students with a practical understanding of key systems for protected area planning and management. Terrestrial, freshwater and marine protected areas are considered. The global context of protected areas is analysed, including issues of definition, scope and governance. As governance processes provide the institutional structures within which planning and management occurs, particular attention is given to public, private, community and collaborative arrangements. Systems and associated methods for addressing complexity, sustainable finance, management effectiveness, community engagement and landscape/seascape scale management are then considered. These topics are explored by drawing on the experiences of practitioners, case study examples and fieldwork.

Murdoch University

This unit examines a range of issues relevant to the understanding of how policies are made in increasingly entwined national and international contexts, considering international and domestic institutions and actors. Assessment will be based on constructive and informed participation, tests on the readings and a research paper. The unit will be taught as a series of modules that may include: Select critical topics framing contemporary policy-making, such as migration flows, climate change, populism, national and global inequalities, austerity, liberalisation and digitalisation. International policy actors and institutions, contexts and modes of governance, including policy transfer processes. Policy-making in non-democracies and democratization processes, political economy of welfare states Varieties of capitalism

Policies embody ideas about what governments can and should do, and how. These ideas 'frame' the problems policies address and how those problems will be solved. Policy ideas vary between policy domains and between countries and they change over time. Policy ideas are mobilised and contested by policy actors seeking changes that align with their own interests or those of their constituencies. When new ideas enter the policy process, they may offer genuinely novel solutions to old problems or renew the attractiveness of discarded approaches. New ideas can also function as solutions in search of problems. In this unit, students study policy documents and research resources to gain a critical understanding of how ideas can frame the definition of policy problems and their solutions. Because policy ideas travel, the unit considers the mechanisms and actors involved in what researchers call policy transfer or policy mobilities. The unit is taught as a series of modules, each exploring the history, contours and impacts of one of a broad-ranging set of ideas that has come into public and social policy in recent decades. Ideas in focus may include a subset of: brain and mind sciences, New Public Management, big data and governance by algorithm, social investment and asset-based social policy, partnership, sustainability, resilience, and well-being.

This subject was previously known as SOCX831 Qualitative Methods for Policy.

Social research is critical for evidence based policy making. This unit canvasses the use of qualitative research to inform public and social policy. Students will develop skills in conducting qualitative research and how it contributes to policy processes. This includes designing and conducting qualitative research and working with existing qualitative data to develop policy. The course will be structured around four modules. The first examines qualitative research designs for policy. The second introduces students to qualitative research methods and analysis, including qualitative analysis of policy documents. The third applies this knowledge to policy processes, including finding and using existing qualitative data sets; qualitative research as consultation; and the uses and misuses of citizen perspectives in policy processes. The unit concludes by considering how qualitative and quantitative data can be combined as policy evidence. Throughout, the unit will include expert speakers from the non-profit, government and academic sectors to provide insider perspectives on the use of qualitative data for policy making and to discuss the politics of research utilization. By undertaking this course, students will develop advanced skills in undertaking qualitative research and be able to apply these skills in a range of policy settings.

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