Oxford Online Courses in Public Policy

Public Policy short courses

Meet your learning needs with courses that cater to the busy professional.

Evidence in Public Policy

Evidence-based policy advocates a rational, rigorous and systematic approach to policy decisions. It conveys what is known through scientific evidence and importantly, what is not known.

What is often lacking for policy professionals is the expertise to apply the evidence-based policy in practice. The course will teach you how to place the best available evidence to policy development and implementation. Resulting in well-informed decisions when it comes to policies, programmes, projects, and creating policies adapted to fit your organisational context.

The course is focused on the following areas:

• how to use evidence to evaluate the impact(s) of policy.
• how to apply evidence to policy decisions.
• how policymakers gather and generate evidence in practice.
• understanding the demand for evidence-based policy evaluation to be a greater priority in public policy organisations, globally.

There are no specific entry requirements. However, be aware this is a masters-level course and will take a certain level of commitment.

Watch the one-minute video for an overview of the course:

Blavatnik School of Government (Oxford University)

Values and Public Policy: Political Philosophy in Practice

What is the purpose of government? This is the fundamental question you will examine when studying this ground-breaking short course. Students of this course will think critically, drawing out the key values which should be considered in this question.

This course arms professionals with the knowledge and skills to understand the key moral and ethical value concepts that should inform public policy. You will be provided with a process by which to engage with and apply political philosophy to the practice of policymaking.

There are five key themes throughout the course:

• Purpose – being able to evaluate the purpose of public policy and government, and understand the role of the individual.
• Decision-making – understanding the distinctions between what decisions to make and how to make them.
• Values – being able to apply philosophical approaches to evaluate values in public policy.
• Ethics – the application of ethics for moral leadership: weighing up different moral/ethical decisions.
• Problem-solving – deal with wicked problems in a complex world and applying technical solutions.

There are no entry requirements for this short course though it is expected that you will have had some exposure to politics / political philosophy before joining. It is also expected that you have career experience working with policy, in any industry.

Watch the one-minute video for an overview of the course: