The aims of the PhD Public Policy program are:

1. To provide a doctoral program of international standing which will attract high calibre candidates who will make a contribution to applied public policy.
2. To contribute to the economic and social welfare of Kazakhstan through the supply of outstanding doctoral graduates in public policy with functional expertise in these areas.
3. To build sustainability into the higher education sector in Kazakhstan through the provision of future faculty trained to international standards of teaching and research.
4. To strengthen the research base of decision making in the public sector in Kazakhstan through the supply of highly trained researchers.
5. To add to existing scholarship on public policy in Central Asia through peer-reviewed publications emanating from the work of PhD students/graduates.
6. To raise the profile of GSPP as a School well-known for its research and scholarship.

Lectures, seminars, tutorials, flipped classrooms, blended learning, laboratory practicum, individual and team projects, independent study, field trips (including overseas), simulation, case studies, other methods.

Successful completion of the PhD program requires the student to progress through a number of distinct stages, each of which is characterized by a key evaluation/assessment point. The necessary stages are:

1. Completion of all required coursework in the program;
2. Successful complete PhD qualifying examination;
3. Preparing and successfully defending a proposal for a dissertation research project;
4. Conducting the necessary research for the research dissertation;
5. Writing the thesis in an appropriate format;
6. Viva voce examination of dissertation by thesis defense committee.

GSPP provides grants, covering tuition fees and a monthly stipend for students of 217,500 KZT in the PhD program.

Students may be offered a 3-month international placement, subject to resources, in an institution identified as having research expertise in the subject of their thesis. In the first instance, given our strategic links with Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and their supervision and mentoring role with PhD students and GSPP Faculty respectively, the placement option is likely to be in Singapore. However, It may be the case that the topic of the dissertation lends itself to placement at a Public Policy School in Europe or North America, the selection of which will be informed by the student’s supervisors. During the 3-month period, PhD students will conduct field research, offer a seminar on their topic in their host institution, and attend and present their work-in-progress at an international conference. In addition, students will use this period to gain access to a breadth of international literature and expertise which might not have been easily available to them in Nazarbayev University.

As a core subject in the DPP 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 doctoral 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 provide an economic framework for the analysis of public policy. The course uses microeconomic concepts to examine when and how the government should intervene in the economy, and the consequences of that intervention. The course pays particular attention to how people and firms behave as well as how they are likely to respond to policy interventions.