Maxwell again named leading school in public affairs by U.S. News & World Report

Maxwell again named leading school in public affairs by U.S. News & World ReportApril 01, 2008Jill Leonhardtjlleonha@maxwell.syr.edu

For the fifth consecutive time, the Maxwell School of Syracuse University sits atop U.S. News and World Report’s rankings of graduate schools of public affairs, ahead of such prominent institutions as Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School, Indiana University and the University of Georgia. Maxwell has held the number one spot since the rankings category was created in 1995.

Maxwell also ranked number one in the public affairs specialties of public management/administration, and public finance and budgeting. The school is the only institution to place among the top 10 schools for all public affairs specialties: public policy analysis, city management, nonprofit management, environmental policy and management, health policy and management, social policy, and information and technology management.

Maxwell School Dean Mitchel Wallerstein (above) says of the U.S. News rankings, “I am extremely pleased by our renewed ranking as the number one graduate school of public affairs in the nation. The faculty and staff of the Maxwell School work hard every day to deliver outstanding education and to conduct leading-edge research, and it is extremely gratifying to have the fruits of their labor reflected in the assessment of our peers at other universities.”

At the core of Maxwell’s reputation in public affairs is its master of public administration degree program, which was created more than 70 years ago — the nation’s first such professional program. Additionally, Maxwell is the only graduate school whose professional programs in public administration and international relations are integrated with social science departments (political science, history, anthropology, sociology, geography, and economics). According to Wallerstein, Maxwell’s M.P.A. has always featured a rigorous blend of theory, policy and practice.

The juxtaposition of academic and professional programs is built into the Maxwell School, Wallerstein explains. “It’s part of our history. And, while it would be foolish to attribute the school’s strong reputation to any one factor, I think it’s obvious that the way we connect professional and academic programs sets us apart. Anyone who seeks to understand the strength of Maxwell needs to take into account the advantages we draw from this mix of theory, policy and practice.”

The U.S. News rankings are based on a survey of 269 programs nationwide that confer the M.P.A. (master of public affairs or master of public administration), the M.P.P. (master of public policy), or the M.P.M. (master of public management). The survey emphasizes scholarship and curriculum, and the quality of faculty and graduates.