PHD in Public Affairs

The PhD program (offered on the Denver Campus) requires an intensive commitment of time and effort. It is designed to serve:

• people who seek to further the field of public administration, public policy and public management through teaching and research
• scholar-practitioners working in government, private sector organizations concerned with government and nonprofit organizations
• policy analysts in government, private sector organizations and nonprofit organizations.

In this program, you will acquire the skills for an expanded leadership role in public affairs. The program will help you master the scholarly theory, concepts and research skills required to teach other practitioners, and provide the skills necessary to research and analyze complex public sector challenges. As in every SPA program, theory is closely tied to practice and emphasizes skill development. A minimum of 66 semester hours of credit is required, which includes at least 30 hours of doctoral dissertation credits.

Contact Doctoral Program Director, Peter deLeon or SPA@ucdenver.edu for more information.

SPA professors and PhD students work together closely and often collaborate on research projects and publications.  Above, ABD student Andre d’Alemeida and Professor Peter deLeon discuss public policy at the SPA library.

Assistant Professor Chris Weible, PhD student Mark Morland, PhD student Jonathon Pierce and PhD student Saba Siddiki stop for a picture at the 2009 Midwest Political Science Association conference.  Weible, Pierce and Siddiki along with Professor Paul Sabatier presented a paper at the conference titled “Contesting Rationality: A Target Population and Devil Shift Approach to Evaluate Collaborative Policymaking.”