Curriculum

The coursework in Oregon State’s rural policy graduate certificate program will help you join the next generation of interdisciplinary researchers who can engage rural communities in place-based research and develop knowledge of these communities and environments in order to effect positive change.

All core classes are taught by Ph.D. faculty in OSU’s School of Public Policy who are subject matter experts in the courses they teach. These multidisciplinary faculty are actively engaged in research related to public policy, rural social sciences and rural public policy.

As a student in this 20-credit program, you can choose from more than a dozen courses that will provide the skills and competencies you need to understand economic, social, political and cultural dynamics of rural places, and to design and evaluate rural policy.

For curriculum details, please visit Oregon State's academic catalog.

Core courses (4 credits)

You will choose from one of the two required core classes below. 

• PPOL 511 – Public Organizations and Leadership
• PPOL 512 – Public Policy Theory

Required courses (8 credits)

You will choose from two of the three required classes below. 

• PPOL 552 – International Comparative Rural Policy
• SOC 539 – Welfare and Social Services
• SOC 575 – Rural Sociology

Elective courses (8 credits)

You must earn at least 8 credits from this collection of program-approved elective courses.

• AEC 521 – Economics of Rural Poverty and The U.S. Social Safety Net
• AEC 534 – Environmental and Resource Economics
• ANTH 581 – Natural Resources and Community Values
• PPOL 501 – Research and Scholarship
• PPOL 505 – Reading and Conference
• PPOL 555 – Housing Policy
• PS 575 – Environmental Politics and Policy
• SNR 520 – Social Aspects of Sustainable Natural Resources
• SNR 521 – Economics of Sustainable Natural Resource Management
• SNR 522 – Basic Beliefs and Ethics in Natural Resources
• SOC 575 – Rural Sociology (if not used above)
• SOC 580 – Environmental Sociology
• SOC 581 – Society and Natural Resources

You may petition to take other elective courses with the approval of the rural policy program’s certificate coordinator, Mark Edwards.