Program Overview
The Public Policy Analysis Certificate provides you with a foundation in public policy analysis, development, and implementation. Throughout the program, you will refine your analytical skills and gain a solid understanding of the basics of public policy development and implementation.
This certificate is designed for those directly involved in policy analysis development or those involved in policy decisions, who want to increase their understanding of overall policy processes through a flexible learning schedule.
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Quick Facts
| Program Type | Certificate Program |
| Program Length | 12 months studying part time (one course per term) |
| Start Date | Entry is possible in any semester (September/Fall, January/Winter, and May/Spring). |
| Application Deadline |
Domestic Students: May 1 (for September entry), October 1 (for January entry), February 1 (for May entry) *JSGS does not recommend graduate certificate programs to international students due to complications with maintaining registration across terms and course offerings per term that may affect full-time student status. |
| Tuition | Effective September 1, 2023, the tuition rate per three-credit-unit course is $2,809 for domestic students and approximately $4,382 per three-credit-unit course for international students*. Students pay as they take courses. Students are also required to pay off-campus graduate student fees. |
| JSGS Scholarship Funding | None |
| GRE/GMAT Requirement | None |
| English Language Requirements | Proof of language proficiency is required. |
| Location | This certificate is delivered fully online and is offered only by the University of Saskatchewan campus. |
| Potential Career Paths | Senior Policy Analyst |
Core Learning Outcomes
In consultation with our public sector and community partners, the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy has created a signature JSGS pedagogy to support your development in core competencies and skills needed for success in public administration. This competency framework encourages students to demonstrate the ability to:
- Develop and apply an evidence-informed approach to policy issues and policy options;
- Be able to communicate with different audiences to build relationships and harness diverse perspectives to gain understanding, design, and advance policy solutions; and
- Lead self, teams, and partners to implement policy decisions, manage change initiatives, monitor progress, and support continuous improvement.
As a student enrolled in the Public Policy Analysis Certificate, depending on your course selection, you may be exposed to specific readings, assignments and activities that will help you both acquire and develop the ability to:
- Understand policy, policy analysis, and the policy cycle from an academic and practical perspective;
- Effectively use tools of policy analysis including briefing notes, decision items, SWOT analysis, and many more;
- Formulate an argument and apply evidence and reason to support your claims;
- Effectively present your ideas, so they are easy to understand;
- Use system thinking to address complex policy problems through a multi-sectored approach;
- Define, explain, and systematically apply explanatory frameworks in public policy analysis;
- Communicate a clear understanding of multiple frameworks for dealing with the roles of ideas,
institutions, and power in policy analysis; and - Think and write critically in reference to public policy research and analysis.
Upon successfully completing your Public Policy Analysis Certificate, we encourage you to speak with an academic advisor to explore the option of applying your courses to a full master's degree at JSGS.
Courses
Curriculum
Certificate students are required to complete 9 credit units, consisting of one core course (3 credit units) and two elective courses (6 credit units).
Students must register in one of the following core courses (3 credit units) – online section only – offered by the University of Saskatchewan campus:
Focuses on the analysis of the processes whereby public policies arise and are enacted in Canada. The course compares theories and models of policy making and decision-making to illustrate the special requirements of the Canadian environment and examines the roles of various participants in the policy process: legislators, political parties, interest groups, administrators and administrative structures, citizens, and the judiciary.
This course will introduce students to applied policy analysis and key policy research methods including interviews, focus groups and surveys. As an applied project class students will work with faculty and representatives from the Saskatchewan Government to conduct a policy analytic review for a provincial ministry.
This course examines key readings in the public policy literature and provides students with an overview of key concepts and outcomes from political science, economics, sociology, and law that are germane to the theory and practice of public policy. The aim of the course is to provide the participants with a greater understanding of classical and contemporary theories of public policy and the ability to critically analyze and compare public policy. The material covered in the course serves as the foundation for the PhD comprehensive exam.
Students must also complete two of the following elective courses (6 credits hrs):
*Or another equivalent economic analysis course recommended and approved by the Graduate Chair.
The purpose of this course is to provide an economic framework for the analysis of public policy. The course uses microeconomic concepts to examine when and how the government should intervene in the economy. Using the starting point of policy as intervention, the course examines the circumstances under which government involvement is most likely to be desirable. The course then moves to consider the key instruments that government uses in its intervention. In the examination of these two broad issues, the course pays particular attention to how people and firms behave and how they are likely to respond to policy instruments. The course also develops the key concepts associated with cost-benefit analysis and shows how these concepts are used in the analysis of public policy.
Focuses on the analysis of the processes whereby public policies arise and are enacted in Canada. The course compares theories and models of policy making and decision-making to illustrate the special requirements of the Canadian environment and examines the roles of various participants in the policy process: legislators, political parties, interest groups, administrators and administrative structures, citizens, and the judiciary.
Administrative decision-making and policy development often require the analysis of quantitative data. This course will introduce students to descriptive and inferential statistics often used in policy environments so that they will be effective data users and interpreters. Students will be taught how to use and present descriptive statistics.
Through extensive use of examples from various fields, students will be exposed to the art and science of applying evaluation methodologies and techniques to policies and programs in both the public and non-profit sectors.
This course will compare neo-classical and feminist approaches to the analysis of public policy. Students will examine the labour market and gender-based inequality; the family, with a particular focus on intra-household resource allocation; and will consider macro-economic issues and provide gender-based analysis in relation to public policy in Canada.
This course uses a comparative perspective to analyze how public policy is formulated, how it can change, and why. It will discuss the roles of formal and informal institutions, of actors, structures, and networks. The aim of the course is to provide the participants with a greater understanding of classical and contemporary theories of public policy; with the ability to critically analyze and compare public policy; and to develop frameworks for comparative policy analysis.
This course provides students with the opportunity to learn and practice inquiry processes for conducting qualitative research. Students will examine the following topics: issues in qualitative data (ontology, epistemology, methodology and method), collection of qualitative data (e.g., interviewing, ethnography, focus groups, case studies), analysis of data, and combining qualitative and quantitative data.
This course begins with the historic framework for contemporary public policy established by treaties, reserves and legislation. Then it examines contemporary developments, including constitutional negotiations, influential court cases, urbanization, comprehensive claims and self-government implementation. This course is intended to provide a basis for critically assessing political and administrative decision-making and policy outcomes.
An interdisciplinary course that offers a comparative and historical perspective on social policy development, in Canada and in other advanced industrial countries.
In this course, students examine the manner in which decisions are made in organizations, with a particular focus on policy decisions. The course uses a wide variety of behavioural theories to look at phenomena such as policy traps, framing, unwarranted optimism, and group think.
This course will introduce students to applied policy analysis and key policy research methods including interviews, focus groups and surveys. As an applied project class students will work with faculty and representatives from the Saskatchewan Government to conduct a policy analytic review for a provincial ministry.
This course examines key readings in the public policy literature and provides students with an overview of key concepts and outcomes from political science, economics, sociology, and law that are germane to the theory and practice of public policy. The aim of the course is to provide the participants with a greater understanding of classical and contemporary theories of public policy and the ability to critically analyze and compare public policy. The material covered in the course serves as the foundation for the PhD comprehensive exam.
Tuition
Effective September 1, 2024, the tuition rate per three-credit-unit course is $2,977.50 for domestic students and approximately $5,210.62 per three-credit-unit course for international students*. Students pay as they take courses. Students are also required to pay off-campus graduate student fees.
If you are offered admission into the Public Analysis Graduate Certificate program, a non-refundable tuition deposit of $1,000 CAD is required to save your seat. You have 30 days from the date of the offer of admission being made to accept. If you enroll in the program consistent with the terms of the offer, the $1,000 deposit will be applied to your student account. If you do not enroll, the deposit is retained by JSGS.
NOTE: Tuition and fees are subject to change. Should there be a discrepancy between the information posted on the institution's website and information posted on the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy website, the institution's website should be viewed as accurate.
Admissions and Deadlines
Application Deadlines
Applications to Graduate Certificate programs are accepted on an ongoing basis and are reviewed in the order in which they are completed. Therefore, it is to your advantage to submit a completed application as early as possible, as enrollment is limited. The admission process is competitive and late application submissions may be at a disadvantage.
Entry is possible in any semester (September/Fall, January/Winter, and May/Spring).
| Program Entry | Latest Application Deadline for Domestic Students |
| September/Fall | May 1 |
| January/Winter | October 1 |
| May/Spring | February 1 |
To meet these deadlines, ALL components of your application must be received by the dates above. Applications that are incomplete will not be reviewed nor will they be deferred to future terms.
* JSGS does not recommend graduate certificate programs to international students due to complications with maintaining registration across terms and course offerings per term that may affect full-time student status.
NOTICE: JSGS does not recommend graduate certificate programs to international students for the following reasons:
- The certificates are only 3 courses (9 credit units) in length, and to be considered a full-time student, you must register in 6 credit units (2 courses) per term.
- For example, if a graduate certificate student wants to maintain full-time status, the maximum time in the graduate certificate program would be 6 months if starting in January (encompasses Winter and Spring terms), or 8 months if starting in May (encompasses Spring and Fall terms) or September (encompasses Fall and Winter terms), and a student would need to take a fourth course and pay additional tuition to have full-time status in each term.
- JSGS cannot guarantee that courses required for our graduate certificate programs will be available each term.
- If a required course is unavailable, it can affect the opportunity for full-time studies.
Application Qualifications
Please ensure that you meet the entrance requirements of the University of Saskatchewan College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.
| Application Qualifications | |
| University of Saskatchewan | Applicants must have completed a four-year undergraduate degree from a recognized university. A cumulative weighted average of at least 70 percent must be maintained during the final two years (60 credit units). Proof of English proficiency may be required for international applicants and for applicants whose first language is not English. |
Application Process and Required Documentation
Please note that you must submit an application through the College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at the University of Saskatchewan campus. The online application takes about 30 minutes to complete. You may start an application, save it and return to it any time before the application deadline.
When applying to the JSGS University of Saskatchewan campus, please note that you must submit an application through the College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. The online application takes about 30 minutes to complete. You may start an application, save it and return to it any time before the application deadline.
Once you have completed an online application, you will need to upload a series of documents. Please note that in most cases, you will need to allow one business day after paying your application fee before you are permitted to upload documents.
If your application fee has not been processed after 48 hours after being submitted, please contact grad.studies@usask.ca or phone 1-306-966-5788 for assistance. Please ensure you are checking the status of the application fee before emailing or calling. To check the status, please log into your application profile.
| Required Documentation | Description |
| Transcripts | Preliminary Statement of Marks
Post-secondary Transcripts If you receive an offer of admission, you will then be required to have your official post-secondary transcripts sent (by mail in a sealed envelope directly from the institution) to the address below. Please do not send official documents until we request them. College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies
|
| Letter of Recommendation |
When applying to the University of Saskatchewan campus, you will need to submit three letters of reference. Two of these referees must be academic, and one must be professional. As an applicant, you are responsible for sending the reference letter links and updating the referee’s contact information. Through your application profile, you can update your referees, change your referee contact information, and send/re-send the link for the letter of reference. |
| Proof of English language proficiency (if required) |
For students who are required to provide proof of English proficiency:
If you receive an Offer of Admission you may be required to have your official language test scores sent to the address below. Please do not send official documents until we request them. College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies |
| Resume | A current resume that includes background and relevant employment history. |
| Personal Statement / Letter of Intent | The University of Saskatchewan requires that all Graduate Certificate applicants submit a personal statement, two pages maximum, that outlines your purpose in applying to the certificate program.
The Admissions Committee wants to see that you can clearly articulate your interests and ideas. You should make every effort to ensure your personal statement is free of spelling and grammatical errors, is properly referenced (if applicable) and is concise. For questions about the application process or requirements for the Graduate Certificate program, please contact: Graduate Administrator | jsgs@usask.ca Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy |
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