Introduction from the Dean
at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies

The Andrew Young School had another strong year in 2003, and made good progress toward our goal of becoming the best policy school in the United States. The newest U.S. News rankings place us 26th of over 200 policy schools around the country, and in our flagship field of public finance, they score us as 5th best. In other of our fields of specialization, we show up in the top 20. This is great progress and it is a tribute to the hard work of an excellent faculty and staff.

The quality of our teaching programs continues to increase, and the quality of our student body continues to improve. As a result, the demand is up: a greater credit hour increase than any other college over the past four years, an increased number of majors in the school, and an increased number of applications to our graduate programs.

Research output has never been stronger. Almost every faculty member and Research Associate is active in publishing, and the result in 2003 was nearly 300 scholarly papers. Presentations were made all over the world, and faculty reviewed for about 125 professional journals. The Public Finance Review, a leading U.S. journal in public economics, moved its home to the Andrew Young School this year.

Our outreach programs moved ahead this year. The Regional Leadership Forum became a full partner in the Andrew Young School, and Research Atlanta continued its strong community leadership. The Fiscal Research Center and the Health Policy Center continued their work as key advisors in the state.

The curriculum and research programs continued to become more international during 2003. Faculty worked in 33 countries in five continents, and international students now constitute about one-fourth of our graduate student population.

In 2004, we move to a new building, bring in some exciting new faculty, and launch a number of new programs. Next year’s report of activities will be even better.