The Rice University Master of Global Affairs (MGA) is a two-year professional master’s degree co-sponsored by the world-renowned James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy and the School of Social Sciences. MGA students pursue a rigorous curriculum that culminates in a professional degree aimed at putting graduates at the cross-section of public policy and actionable decision-making requisite in today’s global workplace. The MGA is designed to be small, with no more than 25 matriculants admitted annually, so students can actively engage with program faculty and their fellow peers to leverage the global Rice network that truly knows no boundaries.
In the first year of the program, students take an eight-course core sequence that examines global affairs from multiple perspectives including global security, global systems, microeconomics, and international conflict and cooperation. Students learn from some of the finest researchers in public policy and the social sciences that require the highest standard of critical analysis and quantitative application and provide a firm grounding in theoretical and methodological methods. Core curriculum courses are offered in the evenings to accommodate working professionals and content is delivered in the form of simulations, group projects and presentations, guest lectures, and individual research projects.
In the second year, students pursue an area of study in international security, international political development, or international political economy. The area of study allows each student to pursue in-depth studies on a subject critical to their professional interests and culminates in an applied capstone project that analyzes a contemporary policy problem critical to an organization.
Rice University’s location in the heart of Houston, Texas, makes the MGA an ideal setting for studying the formulation and execution of global policy and decision-making on a world stage with some of the largest international corporate and non-profit entities. Houston’s reputation as the ‘Energy Capital of the World’, the vast network of the third largest consular corps in the United States, and the city’s standing as the busiest international sea port in the United States, allow students to network into a variety of internship and career placements.
Current students have interned at such organizations as Ernst & Young, National Oilwell Varco, and the British Consulate.
The MGA is seeking applications for its next cohort to start in fall 2023. Visit mga.rice.edu for information.