Who We Are

The School of Public Affairs was established in 1994 to set a new direction for policy education, research and action. The School's distinctive approach emphasizes solving problems across boundaries, particularly at the intersection where the public, private, and non-governmental sectors meet.

The School is also one of the largest, incorporating two longstanding UCLA units with distinguished reputations -- the departments of Social Welfare and Urban Planning -- with the Department of Public Policy, which also was established with the opening of the School. With 75 faculty and fellows and more than 500 students, the School offers master's degrees in public policy, social welfare and urban planning, and doctoral degrees in social welfare and urban planning. It is also one of the few policy schools with a major commitment to undergraduate education, offering popular minor programs in Public Affairs and Urban and Regional Studies.

The School houses several active research centers that tap the expertise of faculty from across the UCLA campus, addressing such issues as welfare reform, immigration, urban poverty, health care financing, economic development, and an aging U.S. and world population.

The School's chief outreach program, the UCLA Policy Forum, acts both as a catalyst for dialogue on critical issues and as a leader in training and other programs that draw on the expertise of the entire UCLA campus to improve the performance of public, private and non-profit organizations.