Messages from the Directors
A Message from the Academic Director
Increasingly, our world seems replete with “wicked problems” – a term used to define public policy challenges that are neither synonymous with good versus evil nor moral versus immoral, but rather are designated as wicked both by their ubiquitousness and their seeming intractability. At all levels of government, domestic and international, public policy choices once thought to be the answers to many of those era-defining problems have proven divisive, difficult to implement or just plain ineffective. Compounding many of these quandaries is the rapid development in and extensive change brought about by the communications and digital technological revolution of the last thirty years. Technologies that were once thought of as artefacts of science fiction imaginations have become common place in our society and, in some cases, our very hands. They have provided unique and inherent benefits to our societies. However, the rapid transformation into the digital age has not come without its own public policy challenges and while also serving to amplify the lack of solutions in others of those pressing problems that continue to plague our communities. At the same time, those new technologies and the shift into the digital age, while not without problems, continue to offer the best hope for our collective well-being and through the public policy choices we make.
Effective governance in a digital society requires leadership that can produce the sorts of public policy innovations needed to capture the opportunities and confront the challenges that have accompanied the digital age. The Master of Public Policy in Digital Society is a degree designed to meet the novel demands that policymakers face in an era of widespread digital transformation. Rather than conceiving of digital as a narrow area of policy focus, we treat it as a phenomenon that traverses nearly every aspect of contemporary governance. As such, our graduates are uniquely qualified to address the complex dynamics of today’s policy landscape.
Our program is differentiated in the Canadian context not only on account of its specialization in digital society, but also its structure. It is the only professional graduate degree in public policy that is offered entirely online, thus making it accessible both to broader range of students but also to a more diverse array of instructors. Its instructional team includes both accomplished academics as well as seasoned practitioners from the public, private, and non-profit sectors. It pairs traditional graduate seminar formats with skills labs, which offer problem-based learning environments to help students develop the practical skillsets that will be required of them. Finally, the program is delivered in an intensive format that spans 12 months—with the option of an additional 4-month co-op placement—to get students out of the classroom and into the field in as short a time as possible without compromising on quality. Our small class sizes, award-winning instructors, feted program staff, and meticulously curated curriculum ensure that our students receive best-in-class training.
Helping to solve the intractable, audacious as it may be, is our ambition. Providing the leaders of tomorrow with the combination of public policy and digital/technical skills to do so is both our expertise and our solution – for both government and industry actors. Practical relevance, of knowledge and skills, is our cornerstone. It is the basis on which and why we developed the Master of Public Policy in Digital Society program in the first place. Already many of our graduates have played important roles in shaping the future of our digital society and addressing those wicked problems. We hope you will consider joining their ranks.
A Message from the Executive Director
The Master of Public Policy in Digital Society program was designed to address an urgent need to catalyze a set of core competencies in policymaking for an increasingly digital era. Whereas too often the reality of ‘digital-ness’ is a peripheral consideration in public policy training, this program centres technology and digital-ness as the foundation of a flexible policy education.
Our perspective is that the art and science of public problem-solving is increasingly digital in nature; be it connected to data-driven business insights, delicate platform governance decisions, or government service delivery, technology continues to confront and challenge traditional policy paradigms and structures. At the same time, citizens expect legislative infrastructure to keep up, and accurately reflect their daily realities. This demands agile policy design and responsive implementation.
As governments strive to prioritize their interventions in digital marketplaces, artificial intelligence is anchoring new innovations, while sophisticated synthetic media masquerades through music, books, and images. Algorithmic management practices increasingly treat human workers as if they were robots. Citizens want better privacy protections and institutions are considering what technology adoption means for the future of work. All of this is happening in an environment where legislators are working to update federal privacy legislation, cybersecurity frameworks, alongside other modernization efforts such as open banking.
To prepare the next generation of policy thinkers, our program often pairs anchor academics with policy practitioners that help bring theory to life through first-hand application. This mirrors the straddling of academic and ‘real’ worlds that we ask our students to hold in tension.
Our skills labs build competencies that translate immediately into the classroom and later, to the working world. They allow students to focus on the principles of numeracy, writing, and logic to strengthen their ability to make compelling arguments. It also gives them direct experience working with datasets and beginning to code, which empowers them to actively dialogue with technologists and product designers.
And our optional co-op stream bridges school with the labour force to empower graduates with relevant work experience through paid applied research placements.
Graduates of our program have gone on to meaningful roles at the provincial governments and with the Government of Canada, to non-profits and think tanks, to consultancy work, the private sector, and on to further education.
Public policy is the software of society. The MPP in Digital Society equips the next generation of problem solvers with the skills and competencies needed to meet the moment, spot harms on the horizon, moderate risk, and design workable frameworks that promote responsible innovation. Our students endeavour to make Canada better in ways big and small.
A Message from the Director of Executive Education
The Master of Public Policy in Digital Society Program is unique in Canada. It is the only public policy program in Canada with an explicit focus on digital society at a time when emerging and evolving technologies don’t just create their own specific and challenging policy questions but are also relevant in the functioning of every policy area. Whether technology is as an enabler for evidence-based policy interventions, a means of service provision to further policy goals, or a way to drive effectiveness and efficiency within institutions and organisations, the digital brings with it foundational questions about equity, access, privacy, governance, and more. Understanding, creating, managing, and evaluating digital infrastructures has become mandatory for contemporary policy makers at all levels across every policy topic.
Which is why we’re happy to share that we’re going to leverage McMaster’s unique approach to public policy for a new audience in an Executive version of our MPP—an EMPP for people currently in public policy who want to expand their knowledge, or mid-career professionals in other fields wanting to bring their subject expertise to the policy arena.
Current events show just how much this kind of program is needed. Take it from Aaron Snow, the former chief executive of the Canadian Digital Service, who put it succinctly in a recent Globe and Mail interview while discussing a scathing Auditor General’s report regarding the ArriveCan app: “I think there’s still a fair amount of acceptance of, I think, a broken idea, which is that it’s okay for people to rise to the top of government service without having an understanding of how technology and software work and are developed and maintained. I think that’s dangerous.”
The McMaster EMPP will be designed to give experienced policy professionals the technical knowledge to know what they’re talking about when they procure technology, and the capacity to engage in decision processes about new tech tools and their governance as thought leaders. It will allow them to expand their thinking into new policy arenas where need (and opportunities) are the greatest. Designed for working professionals, our course delivery will be primarily virtual with a mix of asynchronous and synchronous content to facilitate participation by learners with full-time employment commitments, while also providing scheduled opportunities for in-person immersion and networking.
We are working right now on what the right mix of courses and scheduling will be—this is a project very much in process. That mean that if you have ideas about what kind of program would meet your needs, or the needs of people in your organisation or institution, I’d love to hear from you. Similarly, if this sounds like the kind of program you would like to get involved with as a potential instructor or as what we call a “Professor of Practice,” a co-instructor who brings their practical experience to the (virtual) classroom, please reach out.
Stay tuned for updates as our planning proceeds. I’m excited to take this challenge on and build on the success of the core MPP program for a new audience but with the same objectives: to strengthen policy thought leadership in Canada and beyond.