Guide to Graduate Education in Science, Engineering and Public Policy

About the SEPP Guide

As the R&D enterprise has grown during the past five decades, public policy issues involving science and technology have appeared on national and international agendas with increasing frequency. Reflecting this increase in the awareness of the social, political, and economic importance of science and technology has been a growth of interest in graduate education in science, engineering, and public policy (SEPP).

By the early 1970s, the research activities, courses, and seminars that had developed in some U.S. universities began to coalesce into more formal teaching programs, primarily at the graduate level. There are now more than 25 universities in the U.S. and 15 in other countries that offer graduate degrees in SEPP, under a variety of labels. This guide provides profiles describing the major features of some of these programs.  

This online publication is the fourth edition of the Guide to Education in Science, Engineering, and Public Policy. All, starting with the original Guide in 1985, have been prepared under the auspices of and with guidance from the Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy (COSEPP) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). COSEPP has for some years provided a forum for exploring the issues of this field and a meeting ground for its academic community. COSEPP, in fact, grew out of a "Science and Public Policy Studies Group," which had been formed by SEPP scholars in the late 1960s.  

Previous editions of this guide have been published by AAAS in paper form. Publishing online, however, provides the opportunity not only to update the Guide on a continuing basis, but also to establish links to the sites of the programs listed in it, as well as to other sources of information on SEPP education.  

It is our hope that prospective SEPP students and others will find this site helpful as a means of getting to know the field. We would be grateful for feedback on the site and for suggestions as to how it might be made more useful. Please contact us by e-mail, fax (202 289-4950) or regular mail (Science & Policy Programs, 1200 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20005 USA).  

The latest complete revision of the Guide was prepared by Amanda Rubin in 2009. Updates since have been limited to individual program details. Web design is by Margo Scavone of the AAAS Publication Services. AAAS is grateful to them, as well as to the SEPP program directors and others who provided the information contained in this guide and to the members of COSEPP for their continuing advice and guidance. 

Edward G. Derrick  
Acting Director 
Science and Policy Programs