Doctor of Philosophy in Public Policy - Health Care Policy and Management

Northeastern University

The PhD in Public Policy is an interdisciplinary program that combines social science and legal theoretical perspectives with quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. The faculty in the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs support students’ research and dissertations in three broad areas of inquiry-urban and regional policy, sustainability and resilience, and health management and policy. Students work with faculty advisors to formulate a plan of study within their field of concentration by choosing from graduate programs offered in the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, the College of Social Sciences and Humanities, and in other colleges and schools at Northeastern University. Students study a common body of knowledge in core courses in policy theory, research methods, and statistics, followed by courses in each student’s respective concentration. The school’s research centers and faculty research projects provide opportunities for students to develop insight, experience, and synergies to help with their own research goals. The college and school offer a high level of support allowing all students to be devoted full time to their studies and research. The program is full time and in residence only. The Health Care Policy and Management concentration of the PhD in Public Policy prepares doctoral students for careers as health care academics, consultants, or research analysts working in universities, the public sector, or industry. This preparation includes a deep immersion in the specific aspects of health care organization, financing, and delivery learning about current health policy and management issues such as Affordable Care Act implementation and payment reform studying health innovation and acquiring the methodological tools to do high-level research on a variety of health policy and management questions. This concentration includes a dynamic mix of high-level coursework and a residency experience working in a health care organization that allows the student to conduct research around a real world health care issue. The coursework for this concentration is interdisciplinary and gives students the flexibility to tailor training to their interests. It blends the fields of policy, business, sociology, economics, methods, law, and public health to give students different conceptual and methodological tools for doing health care research.