Pepperdine School of Public Policy (SPP)

Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy takes a fresh, innovative, and student-centered approach to the increasingly important interdisciplinary field of public policy. Pepperdine’s program is built on a distinctive philosophy that impacts the study and application of public policy in several important respects:

• Public policy is not limited to the study of government solutions, but is broadened to embrace a full range of community-based and free-market approaches to public policy challenges.
• Effective public policy solutions are rooted in the classic literature of history, philosophy, and economics and are guided by moral and ethical principles best captured in the lives of great leaders.
• The teaching of public policy goes beyond the theoretical survey of problems, highlighting policy applications that have proven to be effective.
• Many policy challenges are best resolved at state and local levels. Southern California and Los Angeles provide an ideal laboratory in which to study such issues

Today's effective public leaders understand that solving our toughest public problems demands a well-rounded understanding of policy analysis seen through the specific cultural and historical lenses in the places they work. Like no other program, the Pepperdine School of Public Policy offers students this comprehensive approach to policy-making—one that connects coursework in policy assessment with instruction in America's exceptional founding principles and the timeless conceptions of government provided by the world's greatest thinkers. We graduate students who are uniquely aware that to develop sustainable policy, it must be informed by the public they serve.