Aerial view of the Wisconsin State Capitol building near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

Admissions to the Public Affairs Doctoral Minor have been suspended as of fall 2022 and will be discontinued as of fall 2025. If you have any questions, please contact the department.

Any student enrolled in a UW–Madison doctoral program can pursue a doctoral minor in Public Affairs. The doctoral minor offers training in the field of public affairs and can be tailored to a student's specific interests. A doctoral minor in Public Affairs provides breadth and skills in public policy analysis, program evaluation, and public management.

Admissions to the Public Affairs Doctoral Minor have been suspended as of fall 2022 and will be discontinued as of fall 2025. If you have any questions, please contact the department.

To be approved for the minor in Public Affairs, the candidate must complete the Minor Agreement Form and submit it to the Student Services Coordinator at the La Follette School prior to completion of six credits of minor coursework at UW-Madison. The student must have had at least one college level course in either calculus or statistics and at least one introductory college level course in microeconomics or macroeconomics and received B’s or above in these courses. At UW-Madison, STAT 301, ECON 101 and ECON 102 meet these prerequisite requirements.

The student must have a program of study approved by the Associate Director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs and the student’s major PhD advisor, early in the student’s graduate work.

The student must achieve a 3.0 GPA in courses used to satisfy the minor requirements.

The student may request that one relevant policy course from another UW-Madison graduate department be counted toward the minor with prior approval.

The student is advised to check in with the La Follette Student Services Coordinator; call 608-262-3582 with questions.

Approval of one transfer course is possible. A transcript, syllabus, and course description is required for evaluation.

The La Follette School of Public Affairs doctoral minor requires 12 credits or four 3-credit courses.

Two courses, or six credits must be chosen from the following upper level La Follette School policy analysis or management courses, and at least one of the two courses must be a policy analysis course. PUB AFFR 818 should be taken before PUB AFFR 819 and PUB AFFR/​POLI SCI  871 unless the student has already taken a graduate level statistical analysis course.

PUB AFFR 818 Introduction to Statistical Methods for Public Policy Analysis3
PUB AFFR 819 Advanced Statistical Methods for Public Policy Analysis3
PUB AFFR/​POLI SCI  871 Public Program Evaluation3
PUB AFFR 873 Introduction to Policy Analysis3
PUB AFFR/​POLI SCI/​URB R PL  874 Policy-Making Process3
PUB AFFR/​POLI SCI  875 Public Personnel Administration3
PUB AFFR/​POLI SCI/​URB R PL  878 Public Management3
PUB AFFR 880 Microeconomic Policy Analysis3
PUB AFFR/​A A E/​ENVIR ST/​POP HLTH  881 Benefit-Cost Analysis3
PUB AFFR/​POLI SCI  885 Advanced Public Management: Craft, Constraints and Accountability3

The other two courses, or six credits may come either from other courses listed in (2) or from the following elective courses offered by the La Follette school of Public Affairs:

PUB AFFR/​ENVIR ST/​URB R PL  809 Introduction to Energy Analysis and Policy3
PUB AFFR 864 Health Policy and Policy Design3
PUB AFFR/​ENVIR ST/​POLI SCI  866 Global Environmental Governance3
PUB AFFR/​POLI SCI  875 Public Personnel Administration3
PUB AFFR/​SOC WORK  887 Nonprofit Leadership3
PUB AFFR 888 Comparative and National Social Policy3
PUB AFFR 974 Topics in Public Affairs3

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