Postgraduate Course: MPP Capstone Project (PGSP11316)

Course Outline
School	School of Social and Political Science	College	College of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)	SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate)
Course type	Dissertation	Availability	Not available to visiting students
SCQF Credits	60	ECTS Credits	30
Summary	The MPP Capstone Project is an integrative project that explores an existing public policy problem faced by a real-life public sector organisation. It is offered in place of a standard 'masters dissertation'. Students will base their policy analysis on professionally relevant experience, which is provided by an 11-week placement with a public or nonprofit sector organisation. During the placement, the student will work on a substantive policy issue, investigating and developing a workable solution to the problem. Upon completion of the placement, students will develop a professional analytical report for the host organisation with specific policy recommendations, of 8000-10000 words in length. In the report, students are expected to identify and frame a policy problem, design a strategy to address a given policy problem, collect data and information on a given policy area, formulate options and evaluate these to solve a policy problem. This report will be formally presented to the MPP group and host organisation, demonstrating the student's skills in verbally communicating policy recommendations in a clear and concise manner to a group of peers, practitioners and academics.
Course description	Not entered

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites		Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations		Other requirements	None

Course Delivery Information

Academic year 2015/16, Not available to visiting students (SS1)		Quota: None
Course Start	Block 5 (Sem 2) and beyond
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 600 ( Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 12, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 588 )
Assessment (Further Info)	Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 70 %, Practical Exam 30 %
Additional Information (Assessment)	20% Final presentation of Capstone Project 80% Analytical Report
Feedback	Not entered
No Exam Information

Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to: The Capstone Project enables students to develop and present a major policy design and implementation plan using a real-life situation in an existing public sector or nonprofit organisation. By the end of this course, students will be able to: - identify and frame a policy problem in a real-life situation - design a strategy to address a given policy problem - collect data and information on a given policy area, formulate options and evaluate these to solve a policy problem - write a professional analytical report for a real-life client with specific policy recommendations - apply theories and insights from scholarly research to practical issues - verbally communicate policy recommendations in a clear and concise manner to a group of peers, practitioners and academics - gain practical professional experience through the placement component - appreciate practical and ethical issues in the process of policy-making