The Curriculum

During the two-year MPA program in Development Practice, students undertake rigorous, multidisciplinary, practical training, supplemented by two field experiences. For two weeks during the summer, prior to beginning the program, the students will participate in a "Boot Camp" which will provide intensive refresher courses to prepare the students for the program's core curriculum. The program's core courses teach students the skills and professional knowledge needed for practitioners in this field to successfully work through and manage ongoing sustainable development challenges.

Core Course Descriptions at a Glance

Intensive Pre–Master’s Program “Boot Camp”: Students take an intensive refresher course that includes physics, chemistry, biology, economics, math, and statistics for two weeks in August prior to the beginning of their first fall term.

All students in the program take part in the core courses. The four main components of the MPA in Development Practice program at Columbia University are:

• Cross-disciplinary core courses, with an opportunity for a specialization in a particular field of development or region of the world (48 points, minimum);

• Global course (3 points);

• Elective in foreign language (3 credits, minimum);

• Field training.

Core Courses: Students take a minimum of 48 points in the core courses of health sciences, natural sciences and engineering, social sciences, and management over four semesters.

Global Course: Students take the 3-point “Global Classroom: Integrated Approaches to Sustainable Development Practice” course. This is an information technology–based interactive course that fosters cross-border and cross-disciplinary collaboration, and allows students and teachers to participate in collective assignments and learning experiences.

Elective: Students must take a foreign language, unless proficient in a second language has been demonstrated. Exempted students may take additional points in the core courses.

Field Training: Students participate in “hands-on” field training experiences. The field training, beginning after the completion of the first full academic year, provides students the opportunity to gain firsthand experience of integrated development approaches within the real-world context.

Designated Core Courses

Students in the MPA in Development Practice program must take all the designated core courses; descriptions of some of the new offerings are listed below.

• Managing Multi-Sectoral Interventions, including Finance, Accounting, and Commodities Management for Sustainable Development Practice

Grounded in practical case studies, this course stresses the key concepts of financial management, including the budget planning process, international financing structures, and accounting. The investigation of supply-chain management highlights real-world challenges of production, procurement, and distribution of essential commodities such as vaccines or medical supplies.

In addition, with an emphasis on building “reflective practitioners,” this course analyzes how practitioners navigate effectively across the traditional disciplines of development as well as the field-level implications of their work, appreciating the complex social dynamics of culture, power, ethics, gender relations, conflict, racism, and forced migration. Understanding the relevant economic, social, political, and logistical considerations, students investigate case studies that illustrate multi-sectoral interventions and practice formulating recommendations for how such interventions may be improved, modified, or “scaled up.”

The course also focuses on building the skills of an effective manager through case studies that investigate organizational management structures and practical exercises that encourage students to practice their decision-making skills. Students analyze how organizational management may support or restrict the implementation of integrated approaches to development. Guests from UNICEF or other UN agencies are invited to add their insights, and students analyze the role of effective organizational leadership and professional mentorship. Students also learn the key concepts of institutional resource management and human resource policies, procedures, and management.

• Methods of Sustainable Development Practice

This course prepares students for their field training program by reviewing the processes and tools used to design, monitor, and evaluate projects. Grounded in an understanding of participatory methodologies and the importance of local knowledge, students gain exposure to practical approaches for gathering information, formulating recommendations, and planning projects. Once projects have been identified, students begin negotiating and defining their project goals and activities with their selected “client.” Throughout the course, students engage in critical problem-solving activities and reflect upon the ethical issues surrounding development practice.

• Advanced Applications of Policy and Planning Tools for Development Practice

Students practice using information technology and decision-making tools in a wide range of contexts to develop needs assessment, risk analysis, and monitoring and evaluation systems. In addition, basic concepts, structures, and functions of GIS are introduced as well as the applications of GIS in policy and planning.

• Summer “Boot Camp” and Field Seminar

An intensive series of courses are offered during the two-week “boot camp,” including a math and statistics “refresher” course, fundamentals of economics, and professional writing and communication for development practice.

The math and statistics refresher fosters the development of basic skills of statistical analysis, allowing students to gain hands-on experience using statistical software such as SAS or STATA. The course includes a brief overview of system dynamics and integrative data analysis, and provides students with the opportunity to build and analyze simple and multivariate regressions. The course also highlights the appropriate applications of statistical analysis for policy formation, project design, management, monitoring, and evaluation.

The economics refresher provides an overview of the basic concepts of microeconomics and macroeconomics as well as practical applications for development practice.

The professional writing and communication refresher provides students the opportunity to build presentation skills, improve professional writing styles, and practice engaging in mediation and negotiation through role-playing and practical exercises.

In the field seminar, students receive a practical introduction to sustainable development practice through an intensive seminar focusing on multidisciplinary case studies from around the world. This is complemented by an investigation of local development challenges through field visits to local organizations, including health clinics, waste management plants, water systems, and sustainable forestry operations.

• Seminars and Cross-disciplinary Practical Exercises

During their course of study, students in the MPA in Development Practice Program meet for periodic seminars. Highlighted seminar topics include: tracking progress toward the Millennium Development Goals, multi-sectoral implications of climate change in developing countries, and current events in global development. In the first year of the Sustainable Development Program, each semester-long seminar series culminates with a “cross-disciplinary practical exercise,” where the students work in teams to tackle specific issues related to poverty reduction and sustainable development.

Drawing upon the technical and theoretical knowledge gained from coursework, as well as their past experiences working in development, students have the opportunity to work collaboratively on multidisciplinary assignments. Possible assignments may include producing a brief multidisciplinary situation analysis for a specific region and recommending appropriate policies that would improve local standards of living, or designing an environmental protection plan for a threatened habitat. In each practical exercise, students build key competencies of teamwork, cross-cultural communication and negotiation, problem analysis and problem solving, financial management, as well as project design and management.

• Field Training

An essential component of the MPA in Development Practice curriculum is the field training program. Designed to provide students with a practical experience working in development, the program provides a holistic learning experience deeply grounded in the local environment, encompassing a broad set of activities to foster the development of practical skills.