A Comparative Study of the Public Policy Curriculum in Selected Universities of the World

The purpose of this study was to investigate curricula of university field of public policy in Iran, Turkey, South Korea and the United States of America. The research method was qualitatively comparative using Bereday’s four-step approach. Also, the strategy of country’s selection was “different social systems, different educational outputs”. Accordingly, the public policy curricula of John F. Kennedy College of Harvard University (USA), Seoul National University (South Korea), Sabancı University (Turkey), and University of Tehran (Iran) were compared. The findings highlighted that the most similarities among these four universities are related to the courses of professionals, economics and international affairs. Also, the minimum similarity of the courses is related to the political, communication, managerial, social, environmental and developmental courses. Another finding revealed the main difference among four selected universities was related to the courses with political, managerial, economic and professional nature. The least difference was observed in the courses with the nature of international affairs and environment.. With regards to the findings and according to the experiences of leading countries, it is suggested that Iran’s universities use more courses with a managerial, economic and professional nature in curriculum of university field of public policy.