In 2012, the UCR School of Public Policy was announced as the newest academic unit on campus, carrying the distinction of being one of only four public policy schools in the entire 10-campus UC system. In 2015, it was fully established as a School with a dean, faculty, staff, and students when it launched its Master of Public Policy (MPP) program, the only such program offered by a major research university in inland Southern California. Additionally, it is the only public policy school with an undergraduate public policy major in the entire UC system.

At the UCR School of Public Policy, our motto is "Solutions for the Region, Solutions for the World." While our research has global implications and relevance, Southern California—particularly, the inland region in Southern California— offers us a "living laboratory" in our own backyard to explore, investigate, and learn. As such, the theories that we test, issues that we analyze, and the solutions that we identify that concern Southern California and the Inland Empire's most pressing policy challenges have relevance to the state, nation, and world. By engaging in research that identifies the drivers of policy successes, as well as policy failures, we offer decision-makers, students, and society a more complete understanding of what works, what doesn't, and why.

Our Mission: Serving Inland Southern California

Our mission is to train a new generation of forward-thinking public policy leaders equipped to address the complex, interrelated challenges of poverty, disease, illiteracy, climate change, energy security, pollution and more. Their training will be informed by (i) a diverse, interdisciplinary curriculum that emphasizes evidence-based policy research as well as cross-learning from both international and domestic problem-solving experiences, and (ii) a rich internship program that emphasizes experiential learning.