UMD-Summer: France : Applied Policy Analysis and Program Evaluation Real-World Decision Making (PLCY)

This course is designed to help students learn the concepts of program evaluation and policy analysis in a comparative context. Course topics include the methods used by different organizations to prepare policy briefs/analyses, evaluation methodologies for identifying the counterfactual, assessment of causal validity in research publications, and methods for synthesizing research.
 
The final assignment for the course will be the preparation of a policy brief/analysis. Students will select topics of interest to the OECD, the European Commission, or, with the instructors’ permission, themselves. Likely topic areas for the policy analysis include: aging and pensions, education, employment and the labor market, the environment, families and children, health, housing, migration, and social welfare generally. Final policy briefs/analyses will be due at the end of August.
 
In addition to course instruction, the class will also visit international organizations and meet with senior officials to discuss different approaches to policy analysis, program evaluation, and policymaking. In Paris, students will meet with officials from the OECD. The course will also include day trips to Brussels (where students will meet with officials from the European Commission and the European Parliamentary Research Service) and to Luxembourg (where students will meeting with officials from the European Court of Auditors, the European Investment Bank, and EuroStat).
 
Interested students will also have the opportunity to apply for post-course internships with two offices at the OECD: (1) the Directorate for Employment, Labour, and Social Affairs and (2) the Economics Department. If there is a suitable project in which the student can be effectively involved, the internship can be offered. The internships generally last for two-to-three months (to be worked out between the student and the OECD and the student would be paid (about 700 Euros per month). Students who are interested in this opportunity should inform the course instructors at the time they apply for the program. The course instructors will then provide them the necessary information to apply.
 
A preliminary syllabus is available on the course web page.

*Classes will be held in English.

Only graduate students are eligible for this program.

You must be in good academic and judicial standing and you must not have any registration blocks to participate in this program. The minimum GPA for this program is listed above.

All UMD and non-UMD graduate students, recent graduates and international students are eligible to apply.

If you are interested in this program but do not meet the eligibility requirements, reach out to the Program Leader (listed in the Contacts tab) to discuss your interest in the program.

After you commit to the program, Education Abroad will enroll you in the following three (3) credit UMD course:

• PLCY699N: Program Evaluation and Applied Policy Analysis

The credit you earn during this program will count as resident credit.

More information as well as a preliminary syllabus is available on the course web page.

In previous summers, students stayed at the United States dorm on the campus of Cité International Universitaire de Paris and we expect that this will continue to be the housing option. Students may, however, opt to make their own arrangements for housing. (If they do so, they should inform the instructors.)

Please refer to the following resources for funding study abroad:

Financial Aid
Scholarships
Financial Policies

*This program qualifies for eligible Pell Grant recipients to apply for the Gilman International Scholarship. Online applications will open in mid-January and are due Thursday, March 9, 2023, at 11:59pm PT.
*Costs are for Summer 2023.

*Non-UMD graduate students will need to pay a $75 application fee to the UMD Graduate School to participate in this program.

PLEASE NOTE: All University of Maryland study abroad programs are financially self-supporting and, therefore, subject to cancellation due to low enrollment.

Douglas M. Call, M.P.P., is the Program Leader and a Senior Research Analyst at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy's Program for International Policy Exchanges and its Welfare Reform Academy. He graduated with his Master's in Public Policy from the School of Public Policy in May 2007. He has coauthored (with Professor Besharov) articles for the Policy Studies Journal and The Wilson Quarterly. With Professor Besharov, he was the coeditor of Poverty, Welfare, and Public Policy, the third volume in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management's Classics series. He is also a lecturer at the UMD School of Public Policy, teaching courses on poverty measurement and alleviation, program evaluation, and the capstone course for students in the social policy concentration. With Professor Besharov, he is coediting the OUP volume Labor Activation in a Time of High Unemployment: Encouraging Work while Preserving the Social Safety-Net and has been involved with organizing and shaping the agenda for past policy exchanges in Paris, Rome, Shanghai, and Segovia.

Douglas J. Besharov  is a professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, where he teaches courses on poverty, welfare, children and families, policy analysis, program evaluation, and performance management. He is also a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, where he leads a program on comparative social policy. In 2008, he was President of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) and, subsequently, APPAM's International Conference Coordinator. He is now director of the University's Welfare Reform Academy and its Center for International Policy Exchanges. Between 1985 and 2009, he was a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. Between 1975 and 1979, he was the first director of the U.S. National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect. Together with Neil Gilbert of the University of California (Berkeley), Professor Besharov is co-Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford University Press Library on International Social Policy. Among his eighteen books is Recognizing Child Abuse: A Guide for the Concerned, a book designed to help professionals and laypersons identify and report suspected child abuse. He has written over 250 articles, and has contributed to The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.
 

For course, itinerary or in-country information, please contact the Program Leader(s). For general questions or assistance with applying, contact EA Short-term Programs.

As a part of this program, you will engage in the following activities:

• Course taught by leading international experts in policy analysis
• Diverse class with students from all over the world
• Meetings on-site with officials in Paris (OECD), Brussels (European Commission and European Parliamentary Research Service), and Luxembourg (the European Court of Auditors, the European Investment Bank, and EuroStat).