Graduate School of Public Policy
Graduate School of Public Policy
Graduate School of Public Policy
Doctor of Public Management
The DPM program is designed for senior public sector professionals seeking to refine their skills and advance their career opportunities. This 36-month program is particularly suitable for working public sector officials who have a minimum of 8 years of working experience, a portion of which must have been spent in a position with decision-making responsibilities.
Admission Requirements
Doctor of Public Management
The DPM program is designed for senior public sector professionals seeking to refine their skills and advance their career opportunities. This 36-month program is particularly suitable for working public sector officials who have a minimum of 8 years of working experience, a portion of which must have been spent in a position with decision-making responsibilities.
General aims of the program:
- to prepare doctoral students to address a wide spectrum of public management and applied policy-related problems using theoretical frameworks, rigorous analytical techniques, and ethical perspectives,
- to promote evidence-based decision-making and management,
- to support and encourage professional growth and interdisciplinary cooperation for faculty and doctoral students, and
- to achieve recognition as one of the leading programs for training the top echelons in the public sector in the Republic of Kazakhstan and in the Central Asian Region.
On successful completion of the program, graduates will have the ability to:
1) lead and manage in the public interest;
2) participate in, and contribute to the policy process;
3) analyze, synthesize, think critically, solve problems and make evidence-informed decisions in a complex and dynamic environment;
4) articulate, apply, and advance a public service perspective;
5) communicate and interact productively and in culturally responsive ways with a diverse and changing workforce and society at large;
6) professional competency: conduct applied research through application of theories, methods and knowledge to address key questions and add to the body of research studies on public policy, public administration and public management in Central Asia.
1) lead and manage in the public interest;
2) participate in, and contribute to the policy process;
3) analyze, synthesize, think critically, solve problems and make evidence-informed decisions in a complex and dynamic environment;
4) articulate, apply, and advance a public service perspective;
5) communicate and interact productively and in culturally responsive ways with a diverse and changing workforce and society at large;
6) professional competency: conduct applied research through application of theories, methods and knowledge to address key questions and add to the body of research studies on public policy, public administration and public management in Central Asia.
Upon completion of an academic program, students will be awarded the Doctor of Public Management degree.
Lectures, seminars and tutorials, independent study, peer mentoring and peer-assisted study groups, synchronous and asynchronous teaching and learning, flipped classrooms, blended learning, case studies and simulation.
Examinations, term papers, essays, presentations, final projects, case studies, reflective practice, portfolio, quizzes, debates, role play, audio/video production, peer and self-assessment, other methods.
In order to graduate with a Doctor of Public Management, students must acquire 200 ECTS and progress through a number of distinct stages, each of which is characterized by a key evaluation/assessment point. The necessary stages are:
- Successful completion of all required coursework in the program
- Passing the DPM Qualifying Examination
- Preparation and successful defense of the thesis proposal
- Conducting the necessary research for the thesis
- Presenting progress reports on the thesis research
- Writing the thesis in an appropriate format
- Approval of the thesis by the supervision committee
- Viva voce examination of thesis by the thesis examination committee
The program structure comprises: 8 core courses, qualifying examination taken at the end of the first year, a thesis proposal followed by the thesis preparation and written submission in years 2 & 3. The core modules will be drawn from an existing list of approved courses currently available at the PhD level in GSPP. The overall 3-year program equates to 200 ECTS.
Program Tuition: US $18 000 per academic year
Per 1 ECTS: US $270
Special Discounts:
Per 1 ECTS: US $270
Special Discounts:
- 75% discount for socially vulnerable groups
- 50% discount for employees of state institutions and state enterprises of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Central Asian region
- 50% discount for employees of Nazarbayev University and its subsidiary organizations, including family members (children and spouses)
- 25% discount for early applicants enrolled in AY 2025-2026
CURRICULUM
*The order of the modules can be reconsidered by the School
THE LIST OF COURSES:
As a core subject this course aims to introduce you to key concepts and practices in public sector administration and management. It seeks to familiarize you with the theoretical and analytical perspectives and debates surrounding the field. Over the past decades there have been widespread changes to the nature and operations of the public sector which have posed significant challenges and opportunities for public managers. Through a series of interactive seminars and case-based discussions this course provides a forum to debate, interrogate and analyze these changes, and the challenges and dilemmas public managers face under contemporary approaches to public administration and management. Complex public service environments are examined together with the trends and transformations, their underlying values and practical/managerial implications. The course modules are divided into two broad themes. First, we consider the environment in which public managers operate and key theoretical perspectives including the reinvention of the public sector- reform processes that have spread across the globe including those that are currently underway. The second part focuses on emerging issues in public management and service delivery approaches. It also examines the application of newer approaches in developing countries drawing on examples and lessons from Kazakhstan and Central Asia.
This module introduces students to the public policy process, various theoretical and analytical frameworks, and an overall evolution of the discipline and its possible future directions. The module helps students appreciate substantive policy issues as well as theoretical issues across policy areas. The first part mainly focuses on various theories of the policy process and how to apply them in policy analysis. In that, the module draws on inter and multi -disciplinary approaches to policy analysis focusing on real world cases. The second part of the module brings in comparative public policy perspectives with special reference to contemporary developments including globalization, global governance, and transnational policy problems. The module takes a research seminar format, where every week the teacher leads the discussion while students critically appraise various theories and frameworks given in the weekly readings. Each student is expected, on a particular week, to summarize scholarly readings in an insightful and critical fashion as well as to contribute a thoughtful question for the seminar’s consideration.
The purpose of this course is to equip students with the necessary statistical tools and model building expertise that are related to the empirical analysis of public policy problems in a professional environment. Students can apply these tools for descriptive as well as inferential purposes: policy evaluation and explaining bivariate and multivariate relationships in general. The course begins with an introduction to statistical and probability theory, probability distributions, types of data, inferential statistics, hypothesis testing, correlation analysis and ends with bivariate and multiple regression.
This core course introduces students to relationship and interplay between public policy and politics. This course covers key topics such as the role of government; public and private sector relations and dynamics; political-administrative relations; collaboration and networks; performance management; stakeholder management; and ethics and anti-corruption strategies. Case studies and class discussions throughout the course will ensure that students are able to link research insights and conceptual frameworks to practice.
Public resources are limited, and decisions regarding how to use these scarce public resources must be informed by an understanding of how well public programs and policies produce their desired outcomes. Knowledge of evaluation methods enables public administrators to: 1) use evaluation findings to improve ongoing programs; 2) work with evaluation consultants to design an evaluation project; and 3) critique evaluation studies cited by various organizations in a policy debate. This course will introduce you to the art and science of evaluation. You will learn methods of collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and communicating information used in evaluation studies.
This course prepares students to design and conduct research in applied public policy settings. Topics include theories of the research process and research design for quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. The characteristics of good research are emphasized, including epistemological issues in research design, methods of data collection and analysis, and defensibility of conclusions drawn from evidence. Upon completing the module, students will understand how to formulate research questions, design and execute a research plan to completion, and communicate the results. More broadly, students will acquire an understanding of how research design and execution are contextualized within the public policy arena and are bounded by practical constraints.
This subject provides a public sector manager's guide to key economic principles, and their applications to public sector activity. Public policy issues are addressed within an economic paradigm. The aim is to help public sector managers make better decisions when allocating scarce resources, when pricing and delivering public sector goods and services and when designing regulations.
The thesis design and written proposal component of the DPM program is designed to prepare the students to work on the proposed design of their potential thesis with the objective of being able to defend their work towards the end of the semester. The course will provide the requisite training for the students to build their proposal. At the mid-point of the course, after fleshing out the initial ideas of a thesis proposal, each DPM student will be directed to a potential faculty member who could be a possible advisor for the purposes of working on the proposal. Students have to defend their DPM thesis proposal towards the end of the course and pass the same in order to make further progress in the program.
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