MSc Comparative Public Policy
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Introduction
Applications for September 2025 entry are now open.
How do countries and regions across the globe navigate the most pressing public policy challenges?
Here in Scotland we think about public policy in comparative terms almost by definition: what are the similarities and differences between Scottish public policies and those implemented elsewhere in the UK? How and why do they differ in their performance?
Embedded in an environment that is naturally conducive to public policy comparisons, we will ask questions about how countries and regions across the globe navigate similar challenges, often deploying different solutions to common problems.
Policy-makers often refer to what works or doesn’t work elsewhere to persuade the public about the strengths and weaknesses of particular policy options and comparing is at the heart of some of the most hotly-debated policy problems:
- Why do students pay for a university degree in some countries but not others?
- Why are unemployment benefits much more generous in some countries than others?
- Why did national responses to the 2008 financial crisis vary widely and so did the responses to Covid-19?
In this programme we will help you come up with clever comparative questions and answer them in a sound and rigorous way.
- Aims
We've recently redesigned our flagship MSc Comparative Public Policy, to create a programme that is theory-led, empirically informed and practice-oriented.
We want you to be able to think critically, cleverly and creatively about comparative public policy. At the heart of comparative public policy is understanding the economic, political and social factors that lead countries across the world to develop responses to public policy issues.
We want you to be able to identify the factors that shape similarities and differences in such responses across time and space. We want this to be an entertaining exercise for you from both an analytical and a practical standpoint.
Analytically, we want to give you the theoretical tools to understand why particular sets of policies are implemented in particular countries. Practically, we want to give you the instruments to rigorously assess which ones ‘work’ best and what some countries or regions can – or, equally importantly, cannot – learn from others.
We want you to leave Edinburgh ready to work in the world of policy and to devise thorough analyses for stakeholders in the public and private sector leveraging the comparative perspective as a unique strength to tackle policy problems in today’s highly integrated societies.
- Structure
Our curriculum has three essential components, which provide a framework for your learning over the course of the year.
They are:
- a core course in each of semesters 1 and 2
- a set of specialist elective courses
- your dissertation
Core courses
Your two core courses introduce you to government, institutions and the policy process, and teach the ins and outs of comparisons from a theoretical and methodological standpoint.
Theoretically, you will learn when it is a good idea to compare and how to construct a meaningful comparison, while from a methodological point of view you will learn about the different qualitative and quantitative techniques that may be employed to conduct comparative analyses.
Elective courses
In each semester you choose two further courses from a list of recommended options, though you may take others offered across the School. While the core courses support your working together as a programme cohort, option courses give you contact with students across topics and disciplines.
Your electives might explore a specific policy area, such as education, energy or the labour market; zoom into a specific policy mechanism, such as public engagement; broaden your knowledge to neighbouring disciplines, such as European studies or international political economy; or strengthen your qualitative or quantitative methodological skills to carry out social science research of the highest standard. We encourage you to make the programme your own at every stage, and your programme director will help you work out what it is you really want to do.
Students also have access to a wider range of options taught in other MSc degrees in the School. The degree programme is complemented by research training in a variety of methodologies and research techniques on introductory and advanced level tailored to the research needs of individual students.
Dissertation
The third element of your programme is a dissertation, an extended, independent research-based project with a comparative angle. It's wholly your own, and it's what makes your MSc a masters degree. Many students work on their own with a supervisor, but we also have a placement-based alternative, supported by a dedicated team.
In essence, we want you to develop in the way we'd want government or any other policy community to develop, as a cohort of specialists informed and enriched by contact with others.
Students in recent years chose to write dissertations on topics such as:
- tax and benefit fraud in Britain and Germany
- educational systems in Scotland and Iceland
- the impact of European Union disability legislation in Scotland and Italy
- European Neighbourhood Policy
- gender, development and globalisation in Mexico and Malaysia
- regulation of advertising of prescription drugs in the USA and New Zealand
Placement-based dissertation
You will also have the opportunity, should you wish, to undertake a Placement-based Dissertation with an external organisation and write your dissertation on the project you have worked on. There is a possibility to undertake such a placement with an organisation of your choice, and this should be discussed with your Programme Director.
Part-time study
Part-time students usually take four courses in their first year and two in their second; the dissertation element can be started as early as April or May of the first year, although there is a degree of flexibility to fit around work or personal commitments of any given student.
- Career opportunities
The MSc in Comparative Public Policy gives students an recognised qualification that opens a path to a range of employment opportunities and further study. A survey of previous graduates of the MSc in Policy Studies and the MSc in Comparative Public Policy found that, within six months, students had gone on to employment in the Scottish Executive, in social research, in a housing association, in local government, and in other public and private sector bodies. One had taken up a voluntary position within the EC delegation in New York.
From other past students who keep in touch we know that our students go on to occupy positions in the Scottish Government, social research, housing associations, local government, and in other public and private sector bodies, both locally and internationally.National Health Service, in civil service, as well as taking the opportunity to pursue further study in the UK and further a field.
All students have access to the Edinburgh University Careers Service during the programme. The service provides both general and specific guidance on career options, runs career fairs, talks and training sessions, offers assistance with a CV, applications forms and interview preparation, and helps in exploring further study options. Appointments can be arranged on the day or in advance online. You can access the service by dropping in to the third floor of the Main Library on George Square, calling 0131 650 4670.
- How to apply
Application Deadlines
Due to high demand, this programme operates a gathered field approach to admissions, with two application deadlines as noted below.
Each application round has a decision deadline, also listed below, but note that we may make offers to the strongest candidates on an ongoing basis, in advance of the published decision deadline.
We strongly recommend that you apply as early as possible, especially if you intend to apply for funding. Applications may close earlier than published deadlines if there is exceptionally high demand. If you are considering applying for our pre-sessional English Language programme, please make sure you apply in Round 1.
Please ensure that you have submitted all supporting documentation and paid the application fee before the deadline for the round you wish to be considered in.
Round Application deadline Places awarded by 1 13 January 2025 17 April 2025 2 29 May 2025 30 June 2025 Deadline for UK/Scotland fee status
After round 2, if there are still places available, applications will remain open only to applicants who are eligible for the UK/Scotland fee rate, including the EU/EEA Pre-settled Scotland fee status. Applications will remain open no later than 30 June 2025 and may close earlier than this if the programme becomes full, so we strongly recommend you apply as soon as possible.
If you apply with another fee status after 29 May 2025, your application will be rejected.
Application fee
A non-refundable application fee of £50 must be paid after you submit your application. Your application will not be processed until we have received your application fee.
Award Title Duration Study mode MSc 1 Year Full-time Tuition fees MSc 2 Years Part-time Tuition fees - Reading recommendations
- Chakrabarty, D. (2008) Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Hall, P. A. & Soskice, D. (eds.) (2001) Varieties of Capitalism: the Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Hill, M. & Irving, Z. (2020) Exploring the World of Social Policy: An International Approach. Bristol: Policy Press.
- Jorgensen, H. & Schulze, M. (eds.) (2024) Unemployment and Activation Policies in Europe and the US. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
- Kennett, P. (2013) A Handbook of Comparative Social Policy, Second Edition. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
- Garritzmann, J., Häusermann, S. & Palier; B. (eds.) (2022) The World Politics of Social Investment: Volume I: Welfare States in the Knowledge Economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Garritzmann, J., Häusermann, S. & Palier; B. (eds.) (2022) The World Politics of Social Investment: Volume II: The Politics of Varying Social Investment Strategies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Ragin, Charles C. (1987/1989) The Comparative Method. Moving beyond Qualitative and Quantitative Strategies. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Additional information
Study in a dynamic environment
We're a relatively large department of social and public policy, including both early career and more experienced staff with a wide range of research interests and teaching experience in both academic and professional settings.
We host colleagues working in the:
As part of a large school, this creates opportunities for us to work closely with colleagues in Politics, Sociology, Social Anthropology, Social Work, International Development and Science and Technology Studies. It also gives our students access to an unusually wide range of additional specialist courses, and to engage with students on a variety of parallel programmes.
We want you to feel you belong in Edinburgh as part of a cosmopolitan staff and student community from many countries around the world.
Programme Director
Scholarships
Funding opportunities available for postgraduate study in the School of Social and Political Science.