CAMPAIGN PRIORITY
An educational institution like no other, Pardee RAND Graduate School has a crucial role to play in fulfilling our campaign mission: It will be an engine of new ideas and talent as well as a vital platform for new tools and strategies. It will also be a lab for exploring, experimenting with, and piloting new solutions for communities and for a fundamentally transformed world. We will share what we develop with our higher education peers as well as with the RAND project teams working to counter Truth Decay, redesign institutions, and revitalize communities.
New technologies such as machines that can learn, the Internet of Things, personalized medicine, cryptocurrency, and more are shaping a dramatically changed world. In such a world, existing frameworks of understanding no longer necessarily apply, and new ones are needed.
Pardee RAND has set out to redefine public policy. Today the school is pioneering a new policy paradigm that more closely considers who is affected by policy and does not constrain where solutions come from.
An integral part of RAND, the graduate school enjoys the intellectual freedom of a university without the structural constraints. The talent, tools, and ideas that stem from Pardee RAND expand RAND’s ability to benefit communities throughout the world.
As part of the graduate program, students participate on RAND research projects, gaining real-world work experience, while faculty have the ability to apply the latest tools and technologies to their client work. All are committed to improving lives through research, analysis, and innovation.
Pardee RAND provides all students with full scholarships for the first year of study and partial tuition scholarships for the second year. Scholarship contributions directly benefit our students and help Pardee RAND attract a more diverse pool of top policy talent by making advanced public policy education more accessible.
Dissertation awards help create the time, space, and resources for students to write their dissertations. The funding covers the cost of everything from tuition and data acquisition to travel and conference participation. This support helps students prepare dissertations that contribute new knowledge, novel insights, and tractable solutions to critical policy problems.
The Faculty Leaders Program empowers educators with tools that provide policy expertise and skills to effect positive change—with the goal of empowering communities of color through representation on the public policy stage. The program connects an array of educators across disciplines, and seeks to build diversity in public policy through strong engagement of faculty leaders across the United States, and in particular at colleges and universities serving students underrepresented in public policy.
Pardee RAND, along with the wider RAND research community, is establishing a series of long-term relationships with specific communities in both urban and rural regions. The school is embedding teams of students and RAND researchers to work in partnership with organizations in these communities, including nonprofits, academic institutions, local governments, and the private sector. Externships will support Pardee RAND’s on-the-ground approach to public policy education.
As visitors in the Tech and Narrative Lab, technology residents will work closely with Pardee RAND leaders, graduate students, RAND researchers, and fellows. They will design and run experiments, addressing complex policy problems and uncovering the implications of new technologies on communities and society. The residency program will help RAND attract scholars focused on understanding the policy implications of new technologies and tools for change.
The lab, a physical space as well as a philosophical approach to policy work, is a place to prototype the future of policy analysis and action. Students, RAND researchers, and outside collaborators will build applications and also explore ways to apply emerging technologies, such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence, to help create policy solutions based on a deep understanding of the implications of new technologies.