Chair's Welcome

Welcome to the Department of Politics and Public Administration website! You may be here to learn who we are and what we do to help your family member or yourself to join us as a student, faculty, or staff. We are excited to know that you want to discover our Department and its programs.

The history of Politics and Public Administration goes back to 1962 with politics and public administration courses offered to ‘mature students’ as part of a certificate program at the then Ryerson Institute of Technology. In addition to the certificate program, which became a part-time undergraduate degree program in Public Administration in 1983, the Department launched both its full-time Politics and Governance Bachelor of Arts degree and the Master of Arts in Public Policy and Administration in 2005. The Department has a partnership with the First Nations Technical Institute to deliver the Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration and Governance.

Politics is an art as well as a science of studying how human beings organize their collective life as a community, whether it be a small village or an international system. Building on its historical expertise in public policy and administration and Canadian politics, the Department of Politics and Public Administration has strengthened its research and teaching capacity in the fields of global politics, comparative politics, and political theory in the past fifteen years. The Department offers double-majors in collaboration with Criminology, History, and Sociology and is an active participant in several interdisciplinary programs, from certificates to doctoral programs.

In line with Toronto Metropolitan University’s mandate, the Department strives to excel in the advancement of theoretical as well as applied knowledge to understand how politics and political institutions work at various levels - local, regional, provincial/state, national, and global. Researching and teaching governance by focusing on its political, economic, social, and cultural dimensions since 1962, Politics and Public Administration prepares students for careers in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors with its balanced approach between theory and application through experiential learning.

The Department is proud to have more than 3,000 alumni, while currently serving close to 1,500 active students in the three programs with 26 full-time faculty, around 22 contract lecturers in most semesters and four staff members.

As the interim Chair, it is my pleasure to welcome you to join our Department, whether as a student, a faculty, an administrator, or a visitor and to share our passion for better governance.

Dr. Tuna Baskoy
Chair, Department of Politics and Public Administration