This programme is designed for recent graduates with first degrees in political science, public administration, economics, accounting and finance, sociology, and other social science subjects. The programme is also designed for individuals who already work in government or the public sector more generally, and who aim to strengthen their knowledge, capabilities and skills to improve career prospects. This programme aims to provide: 1) a deeper comprehensive knowledge set of theories on public policy, public management and public financial management; 2) a clear understanding of major contemporary issues in public policy, public management and public financial management across countries in the world, 3) distinguishing  capacity to analyse, assess and explain salient topics in public policy, public management and public financial management and 4) Enhanced capacity to argue and communicate effectively about choices in the domains of public policy, public management and public financial management.

The programme aims to help students start a career in government and public sector agencies, or strengthen their prospects for an improved career trajectory.

The MSc Public Policy, Finance and Management can be also taken jointly with the Global Master of Public Administration at the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance of the University of Washington. Students who apply and are admitted to the GMPA can spend year one at the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance and year two at School of Finance and Management of SOAS University of London, and then graduate with two Masters Degrees. Please refer to the GMPA web page for further information.

Venue: Russell Square: College Buildings

Start of programme: September

Mode of Attendance: Full-time or Part-time

Students must take 180 credits. These are composed of 120 taught credits comprising core and optional modules and a 60 credit dissertation.

Not all option modules are offered every year; please check your preferences with the Programme Convenor. Also note that where 15 credit modules are selected, these should be balanced between term 1 and term 2.

Dissertation

Students must undertake a Dissertation to the value of 60 credits.

Core Modules

Optional Elective Modules

Students should choose one 15 credit module from List A and one 15 credit open option module from List B.

List A

List B - Open Options

Students take one 15 credit module from the open option lists from the following departments and centres (subject to availability):

• Development Studies Open Options (pdf; 402kb)  
• Economics Open Options (pdf; 416kb)  
• Politics and International Studies Open Options (pdf; 409kb)  
• Centre For International Studies and Diplomacy (CISD) Open Options (pdf; 407kb)  

Programme Specification

• MSc Public Policy, Finance and Management Programme Specification (pdf; 199kb)

Important notice

Teaching & Learning

Masters programmes (with the exception of two-year full-time MAs) consist of 180 credits, made up of taught modules of 30 or 15 credits, taught over 10 or 20 weeks, and a dissertation of 60 credits. The programme structure shows which modules are compulsory and which optional.

As a rough guide, 1 credit equals approximately 10 hours of work. Most of this will be independent study such as reading and research, preparing coursework, revising for examinations and so on. Also included is class time, for example lectures, seminars and other classes. 

At SOAS, most postgraduate modules have a one-hour lecture and a one-hour seminar every week, but this does vary. More information can be found on individual module pages.

Find out more on our approaches to teaching and learning page.

Tuition Fees

Full details of postgraduate tuition fees can be found on the Registry's Postgraduate Tuition Fees page.

This is a Band 6 tuition fee.

Fees for 2022/22 entrants. The fees below are per academic year. Fees go up each year, therefore, your tuition fee in your second & subsequent years of study will be higher. Our continuing students, on the same degree programme, are protected from annual increases higher than 5%.

Scholarships

For further details and information on external scholarships visit the Scholarships section

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