MSc in Science, Technology and Policy
The MSc program in Science, Technology and Policy (STP) is an interdisciplinary Master's program. It is incorporated into D-GESS and includes lectures from many core disciplines from the ETH Zurich.
Aim
The program is intended to equip students originating from natural sciences and engineering curricula with skills for analyzing complex societal problems at the interface of science, technology, and policy.
What the STP program provides students with
- a critical understanding of the institutions and decision-making processes to be commonly found at the national and international level;
- experience in identifying the most important institutional, social, and political factors determining how people perceive and frame policy problems;
- an understanding of the theoretical approaches, that policy-makers frequently apply to analyze and solve societal problems;
- quantitative skills for policy analysis, including statistical analysis to identify the effects of past policies, simulation modeling to anticipate the effects of future ones, and methods of decision-analysis to identify robust strategies under conditions of uncertainty;
- experience in communication, both in order to learn from stakeholders what the most important attributes of a decision-context are, and to be able to explain the results of policy analysis in a manner that a wide range of potential audiences can understand.