Master in Public and Social Policies

This course explores the current political context in which public and social policies are developed and implemented at the local, regional, and national levels, focusing on the nature of the political spectrum, its extremes, and coalition governments as agents of change in public and social policy. It analyzes how political ideologies and contextual influences shape them in order to begin understanding why governments act as they do—after first establishing the Spanish and European political context in which public policies unfold today. It also delves into the definitions and differences between public policy and social policy and, based on the premise that every public policy ultimately seeks to meet a social need, emphasizes the synergies and interactions among state policies of different kinds, addressing them both from the perspective of their cycle and phases and of their components.

This course lays the foundations of public policy as a field concerned with analyzing, developing, and improving any decision made by the state, also defining what is and is not social policy. You will master the art and science of how the decisions that shape our society are made. Using the policy cycle as a starting point, you will go further to decode the real process: a complex arena where actors, institutions, and ideas compete for influence. You will learn that policymaking is not linear but a dynamic, iterative system that demands constant strategy and adaptation. We will connect each stage—from problem definition to final evaluation—to the major challenges of the welfare state, such as housing, education, and poverty reduction. By the end, you will have the essential conceptual map to design, implement, and improve policies that truly guarantee rights and fight inequality.

The VUCA reality (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) means public policy professionals must know not only coordination techniques for project management but also the strategic keys needed to continuously monitor implementation, anticipating uncertainties to respond with agility. This course revolves around three core elements of project leadership: knowledge of universal technical tools; the ability to manage the triple constraint—scope, cost, and time—in a coordinated way; and familiarity with organizational and leadership methodologies that foster a culture of change and effective change management. Particular emphasis is placed on project management principles and domains as a solid basis for decision-making.

This course provides foundations for policy analysis together with practical skills that move you from planning to action—the bridge between big ideas and real impact. You will learn to turn strategy into tangible results. You will master elements of project management, navigate bureaucratic complexities and stakeholder engagement, and develop the leadership needed to mobilize teams toward a common goal. You will be equipped with tools to measure what matters, learning to evaluate policy impact, identify failures in real time, and adjust strategy with agility. You will discover how artificial intelligence and data analysis are revolutionizing evidence-based decision-making across every phase. By the end, you will not only be an analyst but an executor: the professional who ensures that public policies deliver on their promise.

Qualitative research offers the opportunity to go beyond the “what” to understand the “why” of social phenomena. In qualitative research, data collection and analysis are intertwined and often occur simultaneously, enabling deeper analysis of complex social realities. The course addresses:

1. The features and phases of qualitative research
2. Design strategies
3. Data collection methods and their links to research design
4. Data analysis methods and their links to research design
5. Writing qualitative research projects

The course critically discusses qualitative techniques to understand their limits as tools for reflecting parts of reality in all its complexity and social dynamism, and to inform public policy design.

This course aims to provide a synthesis of available techniques to quantify the impact of public policies. With an applied focus, it emphasizes understanding basic statistical concepts and interpreting results. It also equips you with the analytical tools needed to evaluate the results of statistical analyses and illustrates the advantages and limitations of different approaches in the public policy domain. You will learn to correctly perform and interpret descriptive statistics; understand the strengths and limitations of quantitative techniques both conceptually and practically; interpret statistical results; distinguish among observational, experimental, and quasi-experimental studies; critically evaluate causal claims derived from data analysis; and become familiar with techniques for graphical representation and effective communication.

This course aims to familiarize the participant with the basic concepts, approaches, and methodologies related to the evaluation of public policies, in their various dimensions and phases. The objective is to provide knowledge and tools to design and implement systems and processes for evaluating public programs. The class is based on the critical analysis of the theoretical and methodological approaches of evaluation systems, as well as the in-depth study of examples and cases that illustrate the mechanics of evaluation processes in our political-social reality. The main concepts, approaches, and methodologies related to the evaluation of public policies are addressed, in their various dimensions and phases. In this sense, knowledge and tools are provided to design and implement systems and processes for evaluating public programs. The theoretical and methodological approaches of evaluation systems are critically analyzed; at the same time, examples and cases that illustrate the mechanics of evaluation processes in our political-social reality are studied in depth.

A social right is only real if the state has the capacity to guarantee it. This course immerses you in the legal and institutional architecture that turns promises of well-being into tangible realities for citizens. You will become proficient in the constitutional analysis of social rights, mastering the complex principle of equality and comparing the models chosen in Europe and Latin America to protect their populations. Building on that framework, the course examines the main features of constitutional systems through an analysis of different types of constitutionalism and the expanding recognition of rights and subjects. Along the way, you will understand the political and economic forces that explain both the rise—largely due to social mobilization that expanded social policies—and the subsequent erosion of the welfare state in recent decades. By the end, you will not only understand why some policies fail but also how to design socially ambitious strategies that are institutionally shielded to withstand present and future challenges.

Ambitious social policy is sustainable only if it rests on a solid economy. This course provides the strategic framework to understand how major economic forces define the scope of what is possible for the welfare state. You will master the instruments of fiscal and monetary policy, learning to interpret how decisions on budgets, taxation, public debt, and inflation expand or constrain a government’s capacity to act. We will analyze business cycles, the challenges of globalization and financial fragility, and how these factors affect employment and wealth distribution. By the end, you will be able to build and defend robust macroeconomic arguments to justify social investment, ensuring that the policies you propose are not only necessary but also viable and resilient in a complex global arena.

While macroeconomics offers the big picture, microeconomics provides tools to understand the architecture of human decision-making. This course dissects the behavior of individuals, families, and firms to diagnose precisely why markets alone often fail to provide essential goods such as healthcare, education, or housing. You will learn to identify externalities, information asymmetries, and public goods problems that justify social intervention. We will go beyond traditional analysis, incorporating insights from behavioral economics to design policies and incentives that work with human nature, not against it. By the end, you will be able to design social programs that are more efficient, equitable, and effective, ensuring every public resource is invested to generate maximum social value.

This course addresses key aspects of public administration management from multiple perspectives: from the fundamentals of public organizations and today’s institutional challenges to the design of public policies that respond to citizens’ needs, always considering the financial dimension and public resource management. You will learn to unpack the DNA of public organizations to understand not only how they function but how to modernize them and make them more effective. You will grasp the architecture of public finance, analyzing the budgeting process and the complexities of fiscal federalism through a comparative analysis of systems such as those in the United States, Germany, and Spain. You will delve into policy management in a multi-level world, with special emphasis on the local sphere, where impact on citizens is most direct. By the end, you will not only understand public management theory; you will know how to lead change, manage resources efficiently, and build the institutional capacities needed for successful social policy implementation.

The 20th-century welfare state was not designed for today’s world. It faces a multidimensional sustainability crisis—demographic, technological, and, crucially, ecological—that threatens its viability. This course teaches you to go beyond short-term fixes and become an architect of resilient social protection systems. You will analyze the fiscal sustainability of pensions and healthcare in the face of aging and climate inaction. You will delve into social sustainability, designing policies for a just transition that respond simultaneously to automation and decarbonization. Finally, you will master political sustainability, understanding how to build consensus for major reforms. The aim is to find formulas that guarantee today’s well-being without compromising that of future generations or the planet’s limits.

Good health is a crucial means to developing each person’s freedom. Illness and pain make it harder to study, work, or fully engage in social, cultural, or recreational activities. Without a minimum quality of life, self-care, relationships, caregiving, and a fulfilling life become more difficult. Beyond a personal view centered on illness—or an overly simplistic positive view of health—this course proposes understanding health as “a way of living that is autonomous, supportive, and joyful,” and as a fundamental human right within a sustainable environment. The course goes beyond hospital management to focus on collective health strategies. You will unpack the social determinants of health, understanding why life expectancy is tied to wealth, social class, and gender, and what roles governments, corporations, and development models play in these inequalities. You will analyze the history and architecture of health systems, including Spain’s, to plan and manage them with maximum efficiency and equity. You will develop the capacity to build epidemiological surveillance systems and prepare for future health crises, learning how to communicate in emergencies. By the end, you will be able to design public policies that not only cure but also prevent—and that build genuinely healthier and more equitable societies.

Ensuring the right to housing is one of the most complex and defining challenges of our time. This course equips you to become a strategist capable of addressing it from every angle, developing a deep command of urban planning, financial, and regulatory instruments to promote affordable housing. You will analyze phenomena such as gentrification and touristification, learn what to consider when regulating rental markets, and design innovative policies against residential exclusion and energy poverty—always with a strong gender perspective. Through a global lens comparing Europe and Latin America, you will study the most disruptive intervention models, from Housing First for homelessness to social production of habitat and settlement regularization. By the end, you will be able to lead and execute comprehensive housing plans at every scale that not only provide shelter but also build fairer, healthier, and more inclusive cities for all.

Education is a cornerstone of social rights, but it is also a field of deep debates about equity, quality, and the future. This course analyzes the elements that enable decision-making for education reform, empowering students to diagnose systems and design policies that truly work. From a sociological and global perspective, you will examine why inequalities and school segregation persist and critically evaluate the impact of trends such as privatization and school choice. You will gain the tools to conduct sector analysis to measure quality and equity and to understand how international organizations such as the World Bank shape national education agendas. By the end, you will be able to build evidence-based education policies that not only pursue academic excellence but also guarantee the right to inclusive, transformative education for all.

Poverty is not fate; it is the outcome of decisions and structures that can and must be transformed. This course provides the analytical and transdisciplinary framework to go beyond symptoms and address the roots of inequality. You will learn to measure exclusion in all its dimensions, understanding that the choice of indicator is itself a political act. You will delve into cutting-edge concepts such as intersectionality—to unpack how gender, race, and social class intertwine to multiply barriers—and environmental justice—to analyze why the most vulnerable communities bear a disproportionate burden of ecological degradation. We will explore how inequality is inscribed in the body, shaping health and life expectancy. By the end, you will be able to critically analyze existing policies, deconstruct victim-blaming narratives, and design evidence-based interventions that truly break cycles of marginalization.

A long life expectancy is one of society’s greatest achievements, but also a formidable challenge to the fiscal and social sustainability of the welfare state. This course examines 21st-century care systems and enables you to move beyond the traditional assistance paradigm. In a comparative perspective across Catalonia, Spain, and Europe, you will analyze how different social protection models respond to increasing longevity, assessing their ability to adapt to new vulnerabilities. You will master the practical aspects of managing community social services—from assessing benefit portfolios to designing innovative models that integrate technology with person-centered care. You will learn to lead the crucial shift from institutional care to home and community-based care that promotes autonomy. The course prepares you to lead in the new intergenerational solidarity pact, designing dependency policies that guarantee a dignified, fulfilling life across the entire lifespan.

The Challenge takes you out of the classroom and immerses you in the pressure of a real project, working for a public institution or an NGO to tackle an urgent problem that demands an innovative solution. You will work in a team that operates like a strategy consultancy, intensively applying the skillset acquired during the master’s and receiving guidance from a program faculty advisor. You must diagnose the challenge, analyze the evidence, design a viable policy, assess its fiscal and social impact, and navigate complex stakeholder interests. This is not a simple case study; it is a trial by fire culminating in the presentation and defense of your proposal before the organization’s leadership—an experience that serves as a calling card and proves you are ready to move from analysis to action and lead bold solutions in the real world.

The Master’s Thesis (TFM) is the project that ties everything together—your professional calling card. Throughout the program, and with the guidance of an expert mentor, you will choose a public policy challenge you are passionate about in order to apply the program’s dual skill set in an integrated way. You will be supported by a mentor and follow a series of specific milestones that help you progress through the stages of the project. You will move from a rigorous diagnosis of a real problem—using quantitative and qualitative methods—to designing a robust public policy proposal, assessing its financial feasibility, social impact, and implementation strategy. You may also opt for a more theoretical thesis that nonetheless incorporates methodological elements to provide solid foundations and evidence to support your arguments. The TFM culminates with the defense of your project before an expert committee—an experience that simulates top-level professional demands and demonstrates that you are ready both to analyze and to lead change.

Every great public policy is born—or dies—in the budget. This course teaches you to master the true language of power: public money. It’s not accounting; it’s strategy. You will learn to “read” the State budget not as a simple balance sheet, but as the map of a government’s political priorities. You will unpack the full budgeting cycle—from tense political negotiation to execution, control, and audit—understanding the complex balances of fiscal federalism that shape the capacity to act in a multi-level world. You will master financial analysis to assess the feasibility of any project, whether a new hospital, an energy transition, or a social program. By the end, you will hold one of the most indispensable competencies for any public leader: the ability to build proposals that are not only socially necessary but also financially irrefutable.

For today’s public policy professional, being able to “read” data is as fundamental as reading text. This course is a necessary step to gain that fluency. You will build the foundations of data analysis, learning to translate complex spreadsheets into clear, impactful narratives. You will master descriptive statistics to summarize reality rigorously, identify trends and hidden patterns, and create visualizations that communicate your message instantly. The goal is not to turn you into a mathematician, but to give you the confidence to be a critical consumer of information, to engage with technical experts, and to build your first policy arguments on a solid base of numerical evidence. It’s the data literacy every leader needs.

In the era of Big Data and artificial intelligence, turning raw data into solid evidence isn’t optional—it’s a core leadership competency. This course equips you with the statistical toolkit to do it with rigor and integrity. You will move beyond mere correlations toward causal inference, mastering tools such as multivariable regression to isolate and quantify a policy’s true impact. You will command the full analysis cycle: from sampling design and hypothesis formulation to validating results and communicating them effectively. It’s not about memorizing formulas, but developing critical thinking that helps you build irrefutable arguments and dismantle flawed analyses. By the end, you’ll have the technical confidence to guide decision-making with the rigor major social challenges demand.

Correlation is not causation. This maxim separates shallow analysis from the analysis that truly changes decisions. This course provides the theoretical foundations to become a rigorous, genuinely critical data analyst. You will learn to think beyond formula application to understand the inner architecture, assumptions, and limitations of the statistical models that govern policy analysis. You will dive into multivariable regression, time series, and instrumental variables, tackling real-world challenges such as omitted-variable bias and endogeneity. The goal is to develop a sharp intuition for the validity of any quantitative analysis—so you can build robust models, interpret results precisely, and recognize when a conclusion is statistically defensible. This technical training gives you the confidence not only to ground your own arguments with irrefutable rigor, but also to audit and deconstruct the analyses of others, separating solid evidence from statistical manipulation.

In a world of scarce resources and growing accountability, proving that a policy works is no longer optional—it’s imperative. This hands-on course trains you to manage the full lifecycle of an evaluation: from negotiating the design with stakeholders to field data collection and the final communication of results. You will specialize in implementing the most powerful evaluation designs, such as Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) and leading quasi-experimental methods, always focused on real-world constraints: limited budgets, ethical issues, and imperfect data. You won’t just apply tools—you’ll learn to choose the right one for each context. By the end, you will be able to lead an impact evaluation, turning evidence into the lever to scale, improve, or redesign policies and programs.

The state’s purchasing power is one of the most potent and underused public policy tools. This course shows you how to wield that strategic lever, transforming public procurement from a mere administrative exercise into a driver of social and environmental change. You will learn to design contracts that go beyond the lowest price—integrating social clauses to promote labor inclusion and equality, and environmental criteria that boost the circular economy and accelerate the energy transition. You will master the craft of building tenders that incentivize innovation and quality, using product life-cycle approaches and the most advanced award criteria. By the end, you won’t just be an expert in procurement rules—you’ll be a market architect, able to use every public euro to build a fairer, greener, and more prosperous society.

You may undertake curricular internships in public institutions, consultancies, NGOs, or international organizations, recognized as 6 ECTS of elective coursework. Internships are an opportunity to fully immerse yourself in the social-change ecosystem—working inside public administration, a top-tier consultancy, an NGO, or an international organization. You won’t be a mere observer; you’ll be a doer, applying your analytical skills to real problems and contributing to high-impact projects. This experience helps you build an invaluable professional network and prove your worth in a high-expectation environment.

Artificial Intelligence is no longer science fiction; it is the new infrastructure on which 21st-century governance is being built. This course is your practical immersion in this revolution, from its conceptual origins to its exponential application today. Through Machine Learning case studies, you will dive into the engine reshaping public and private services. The experience connects to reality via a visit to a global tech company to see first-hand how algorithms manage urban logistics and pose new regulatory challenges. You will apply these insights in a final project, thinking like a strategist in the age of AI: able to harness its power for social good while anticipating ethical dilemmas and governance challenges.

Public administration no longer resides only in buildings; it is a digital platform redefining the state–citizen relationship. This course places you at the heart of the GovTech revolution, redesigning public services to be more agile, efficient, and human-centered, leveraging data and automation as public administration moves toward integrating AI. But digitalization is fundamentally about rights: you will delve into AI-era ethical and legal dilemmas—from algorithmic bias and privacy protection to closing the digital divide that risks new forms of exclusion. By the end, you will be ready to lead the state’s digital transformation, building an administration that is not only smarter but fairer, ensuring citizens’ rights expand—not contract—in the digital age.

Once AI is embedded in the state, the central challenge is governing algorithms without losing sight of human rights. This course prepares you for governing AI: not only applying Machine Learning to optimize services but confronting dilemmas when automated systems affect fundamental rights. You will study public oversight mechanisms to audit algorithmic “black boxes,” ensure transparency, and counter bias. You will design public accountability frameworks to determine responsibility when systems fail, and debate AI’s impact on democracy—how to preserve legitimacy and citizens’ rights, particularly social rights. You will graduate ready to lead ethical, democratic AI implementation that serves the public interest.

Society’s hardest problems hide in oceans of data. This course immerses you in Big Data fundamentals to manage and process massive information at policy scale. You will gain hands-on experience with tools like Apache Spark on leading cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services, moving from theory to application. The goal is to extract collective intelligence from large-scale data to identify patterns, anticipate trends, and design policies with unprecedented precision and scale.

*This course is offered in English.

The answers to major social problems lie in data—but only if you know how to access it and make sense of it. This course teaches you the universal language for interacting with databases: SQL. You will master the fundamental skill of extracting and structuring information found in public-sector systems and private-sector entities. But we will go beyond basic queries: you will explore modern data architectures such as the Lakehouse, learning to build reliable, scalable information repositories. You will dive into the extract, transform, and load (ETL) process—the essential work that turns raw administrative data into strategic assets. By the end, you will have the technical capacity to build and manage the information systems that enable an organization to operate more intelligently and evidence-based.

*This course is offered in English.

This course focuses on one of the most important phases of data analytics: exploratory data analysis. It presents statistical methods, visualization techniques, and more advanced methods to understand a dataset, formulate hypotheses about it, and clean and prepare the data for experimentation and analysis—especially for use by artificial intelligence algorithms. The main objective is to provide an introduction to the fundamental aspects of exploratory data analysis. The course provides basic tools to identify and resolve the most common problems encountered during this analysis and data preprocessing phase. The syllabus is organized around the key stages: initial data exploration, visualization, correction of anomalous values, and preprocessing to prepare the data for subsequent analysis.

*This course is offered in English.

The main objective of the Data Governance course is to provide the knowledge and skills needed to understand and manage the data lifecycle, and to help turn data into a strategic asset for public and private organizations. The course examines best practices, standards, tools, and challenges involved in data governance. It offers an overview of how to orchestrate people, processes, and technology to transform data into a strategic asset. In particular, it presents concrete examples of data processing to ensure quality and lineage, using solutions such as the widely used Data Build Tool (DBT).

*This course is offered in English.

With this course, students will be able to formulate a machine learning problem, develop algorithms to solve it, and evaluate their results. Special emphasis will be placed on different supervised (regression, classification) and unsupervised (clustering) machine learning algorithms, so that students can select the appropriate ones for a real project and deploy them to production. Evaluation of these systems will be emphasized not only through common metrics such as accuracy, recall, or F1, but also through bias detection. The main objective of the course is to familiarize students with the basic concepts of machine learning. Students should understand how these methods are applied and when they are appropriate in different situations. Through theoretical and practical activities, students will learn to apply and evaluate the various methods mentioned. In addition, they will be taught to confront the challenges and limitations of machine learning and to consider ethical and privacy aspects in its application.

*This course is offered in English.

Technology alone doesn’t transform the public sector; it takes leadership that knows how to implement it. This course turns you into the strategist capable of leading digital transformation from within government. You will learn to go beyond the mere adoption of tools to master the full innovation cycle: from identifying a technological opportunity to piloting, implementation, and scaling. You will specialize in breaking bureaucratic inertia by managing cultural change and adapting agile methodologies to the realities of the public sector. You will know how to lead the technical teams who will write the code and speak their language, how to manage resources, and how to align stakeholders to build a culture of experimentation and continuous improvement. By the end, you will have the ability to convert technological potential into real public value—more efficient and citizen-centered.

Public trust and democratic stability face their greatest challenge in the digital ecosystem. National security and democratic stability confront the dangers of a new frontier that is both digital and cognitive. This course immerses you in the battle of narratives, where you will learn to analyze and counter disinformation campaigns that spread through social networks to erode public trust, manipulate electoral processes, and polarize society. You will master the complex concept of hybrid threats, understanding how state and non-state actors operate in the “grey zone” of conflict, combining economic pressure, media manipulation, and cyberattacks to destabilize our democracies. You will master a wide range of responses. You will learn to build institutional and social resilience through strategic communication, the design of counter-narratives, and the promotion of media literacy. In addition, you will specialize in designing smart, risk-based regulatory frameworks that seek the difficult balance of combating disinformation while at the same time safeguarding freedom of expression. You will also delve into cybersecurity policies to protect not only critical infrastructure—from power grids to electoral systems—but also the most valuable asset of the digital age: data, ensuring digital sovereignty and citizens’ rights. By the end, you will be able to design and lead strategies for the proactive defense of our institutions and of democratic debate, building the digital and cognitive resilience the 21st century demands.

This course focuses on the multifaceted concept of sustainability, highlighting the critical and dynamic interplay between the public and private sectors in advancing sustainable development. It examines diverse national contexts, capacities, and needs to understand the role of public-private collaborations. It covers key topics, including social movements, climate justice, the United Nations System, and international principles that are meant to maintain peace and security, protect human rights, and ensure a just transition. Furthermore, a range of topics integral to climate action and sustainable development are covered. These include the roles of various stakeholders in the climate ecosystem, the mechanisms behind global climate discourse, and the structure and benefits of Public-Private Partnerships. This course also highlights communication and stakeholder engagement strategies to amplify sustainable projects. The course concludes with a look at future climate collaborations, evaluating the potential of AI, the impact of democratic governments, the rising frequency of weather-related events, global risks, and emerging trends in climate partnerships across nontraditional actors (e.g. entertainment, culture, arts) based on the ‘radical collaboration’ concept. By the end of the course, students will have developed critical thinking skills for leading transformational change, both in the public and private sector.

*This course is offered in English.