OSUN-EDI Certificate Program

Public Policy and Economic Analysis
The undergraduate Certificate in Public Policy and Economic Analysis is designed for the next generation of policymakers who are interested in addressing the structural determinants of inequality, unemployment, and poverty. It offers training in cutting-edge economic thinking by combining the tools and techniques from several methodological traditions in economics with an intersectional approach to data science and a focus on historical and institutional factors. The certificate is open to all undergraduate students, irrespective of disciplinary focus in their primary program of study.

The deadline for completing this program is May 2025. Please only apply if you will be able to complete all requirements before that date.

Certificate Partners

Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, USA).
Al-Quds Bard College (Beit Hanina, Jerusalem, Palestine).
Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia). Coordinator: Santiago Melo, [email protected]
Bard College Berlin (Berlin, Germany). Coordinator: Gale Raj-Reichert, [email protected]
American University of Central Asia (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan). Coordinator: Asel Kyrgyzbaeva, [email protected]
BRAC University (Dhaka, Bangladesh).

Learn more about core courses and possible electives offered at each of these institutions below. Students may propose additional electives not listed on this website to their coordinator.

About the Certificate

Why?
The certificate is designed for the next generation of policymakers who are interested in addressing the structural determinants of inequality, unemployment, and poverty. It provides formal recognition of a rigorous and interdisciplinary course of study. Addressing complex challenges of our time, from climate change and inequality to economic insecurity and poverty, requires policymakers to take a multifaceted approach, incorporating diverse perspectives and methods into their actions. This certificate program provides students with necesary tools to address these issues, as well as a credential to add to their resume. 

Who is eligible?
All undergraduate students at OSUN member institutions. Applicants from all disciplines are welcome.

How to earn?
At each institution, a student can earn the certificate by completing the following requirements:

  • Two regularly offered EDI Core Network Collaborative Courses:
    • The Right to Employment 
    • Economic Perspectives for Policy Making
    • If an institution does not yet offer both courses, students can substitute one of them by enrolling in an EDI OSUN Summer Course. 
      • 2024 Online Summer Core Course: Public Finance and Economic Policy 
  • One methods course offered at the home institution
  • 2 elective courses offered at the home institution
  • A writing component: completion of a public policy brief (usually completed during one of the core courses). 
How to apply?
Fill out and submit this application, which includes the following: 
  1. A short essay (1,000 word max) outlining:
    • Reasons for pursuing the certificate;
    • Area of social concern that the student wishes examine in their policy brief
    • An overview of completed and intended courses to fulfill certificate requirements
  2. An email acknowledging an advisor or professor's approval (attach the email or document from your professor)
Certificate coordinators at each institution will keep record of applicants, support participating students, and track progress toward certificate completion.

Additional Details

CORE COMPETENCIES 
In completing the requirements for the certificate, students will:

  • Expand the scope and methods of their inquiry through instruction in multiple economic paradigms, including those not typically emphasized in traditional curricula. 
  • Interrogate questions of employment, inequality, discrimination, and economic (in)security, to name a few, using interdisciplinary and intersectional research methods.
  • Develop data skills to examine these challenges from macro and micro perspectives.
  • Learn to write public policy briefs for policy-making audiences.
Upon completion of the certificate, students will gain a deeper understanding of today’s economic challenges and contemporary policy discussions and be equipped with tools to conduct their own policy analysis and research in a multidisciplinary manner. Each of the courses fulfilling the requirements for the Certificate contribute to this outcome.
 
REQUIREMENTS
To earn the certificate, students must complete a total of five (5) courses (two required and three electives) for a total of 15 US or 30 ECTS credits. 2 required core courses must come from the approved list (see above). Elective courses courses may be part of the regular curriculum of the student’s home institution and/or OSUN courses, and will fulfill the certificate’s methods and additional elective course requirements. 

Suggested Program of Study

Core courses may not be available every semester. Please check your school's current class offerings for most up-to-date information.

Students at all institutions are encouraged to submit alternative electives: courses that deal broadly with questions of economic insecurity and fit within the student's specific public policy focus.

BARD COLLEGE
Core courses (2 out of 3):

  • OSUN Network Collaborative Course: Economic Perspectives for Policy Making (Fall semester)
  • OSUN Network Collaborative Course: The Right to Employment (Spring semester)
  • OSUN Summer Course: Public Finance and Economic Policy 
Electives
  • One data/methods course at Bard
    • ECON 329 Advanced Econometrics (FA, Guatam Sethi)
    • EUS/ES 340 Statistics & Econometrics (FA, Gautam Sethi)
    • EUS/ES 321 GIS for Environmental Justice (FA, Jordan Ayala)
    • SOC 205 Introduction to Research Methods (FA, Yuval Elmelech)
  • Two additional electives from Bard
    • Economic Security (Unemployment, Inequality, Poverty, Development)
      • ECON 221 Economic Development (FA, Sanjay DeSilva)
      • ECON 319  Developing Cities (SP, Sanjay DeSilva) 
      • HR 376  Housing Justice (SP, Kwame Holmes)
      • SOC 120  Wealth, Poverty, and Inequality (Yuval Elmelech)
    • Climate and Ecological Sustainability 
      • SOC 231 The Environment and Society (FA, Peter Klien)
      • EUS/ES 324 Environmental Law for Policy (FA, Danielle Spiegel-Feld) 
      • EUS 224  Climate Change Science and its Human Dimensions (SP, Beate Liepert)
    • Health and Disability
      • ECON 212 Health Economics (SP, Michael Martell)
      • HR 354  Reproductive Health and Human Rights (SP, Helen Epstein)
      • HR 372  Chronic: Disability, Sickness, and Care (SP, Evan Calder Williams)
      • BGIA 313 Data and Public Health in a Global Context (FA, Gabriel Perron) | Data: Quantifying Human Health
    • Intersectionality
      • ECON 338 Seminar in Discrimination (Mike Martell)
      • HR 274 Immigrants Among Us: Political Rights of Non-Citizens (FA, Peter Rosenblum)
      • PSY SOC Gender and Sexuality Studies 220 Social Psychology (SP, Kristin Lane)

UNIVERSIDAD DE LOS ANDES
Core courses
  • OSUN Network Collaborative Course, History of Economic Thought (Fall and Spring semesters)
  • OSUN Online Summer Course: Public Finance and Economic Policy
Electives
  • One data/methods course at Uni Andes:
    • CPOL-2503 Métodos cuantitativos and CPOL-2504
    • Econometrics 1 (ECON3321 or ECON3311) 
    • EGOB-2601Introducción a la práctica de la estadística (that has as pre-requisite MATE-1252 Cálculo integral con probabilidad)
    • Open to undergraduates in the 3rd and 4th yeear: EGOB-4104 Técnicas de análisis de datos, and EGOB-4105 Análisis económico de las políticas públicas
  • Two additional electives from Uni Andes: 
    • HIST-2800 AMÉRICA LATINA: MERCADOS Y REVOLUCIONES GLOBALES, 1700-1850
    • HIST-2771 CAPITALISMO Y ESPACIO: HISTORIA URBANA GLOBAL
    • CBCA-1006 TENER Y PODER (Economic anthropology course)
    • CPOL-2424 TEORÍA POLÍTICA MARXISTA Y POSTMARXISTA.

AL-QUDS BARD COLLEGE (AQB)
Core courses (2 out of 3)
  • OSUN Network Collaborative Course, History of Economic Thought (Spring semester, Prof. Sobhi Samour)
  • OSUN Network Collaborative Course, The Right to Employment (Spring semester, Prof. Sameh Alhallaq) 
  • OSUN Online Summer Course: Public Finance and Economic Policy
Electives
  • One data/methods course at AQB: Quantitative Research Methods (9117301)
  • Two additional electives from AQB: AQB elective course list

BARD COLLEGE BERLIN (BCB)
Core courses
  • Course: Origins of Political Economy (Fall semester)
  • OSUN Online Summer Course: Public Finance and Economic Policy
One data/methods course at BCB:
  • Statistics (MA151 Introduction to Statistics)
  • Econometrics
  • Methods in Social and Historical Studies (SO104 Field Research: Dilemmas and Possibilities, SO105 Researching Social Life)

Two additional electives from BCB, from the modules:
  • Behavioral Economics (e.g. EC221 Sustainability Economics)
  • History of Political Thought (e.g. SO181 Race, Racism and Resistance: From the Enlightenment to Black Lives Matter)
  • Political Systems and Structures (e.g. PS119 Intro to Comparative Politics, PS208 The Political Economy of Globalization)
  • Methods in Social and Historical Studies (e.g. SO182 Research and Activism in the Urban Context)
  • Ethics and Moral Philosophy (e.g. the OSUN Network Collaborative course: PT160 Transnational Feminism Is for Everybody)
  • OR another course that fits in within the student's policy focus. 

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ASIA (AUCA)

Core courses (2 out of 3)
  • OSUN Network Collaborative Course History of Economic Thought (Fall semester, Prof. Asel Kyrgyzbaeva)
    OSUN Network Collaborative Course, The Right to Employment (Spring semester, Prof. Akylai Muktarbekkyzy and Prof. Meerim Djakypova)
  • OSUN Online Summer Course: Public Finance and Economic Policy
Electives
  • One data/methods course at AUCA: ECO 401 Research Methods in Economics and Social Sciences
  • Two additional electives from AUCA: SOC 201: Stratification, Inequality, & Power, ECO 305: Labor Economics, ECO 313: Environmental and Resource Economics, OR other courses that deal broadly with questions of economic insecurity and fit within the student's public policy focus.