The International Comparative Rural Policy Studies (ICRPS) program brings together an international, multi disciplinary group of faculty, students and professionals to study together the many facets of rural policy, from policy formulation to policy impacts.
The ICRPS Consortium, comprising core faculty from eleven universities in Canada, Europe and the USA, has developed an advanced program to enhance policy formulation and analysis in the rural context. The ICRPS program is the first of its kind that enables students to examine and compare the role of rural policy in different cultural, political and administrative contexts in Europe and North America, as well as in the South.
Designed for graduate students and mid-career professionals, the ICRPS program introduces the skills to analyze and compare policies at the international, national, state, regional and local levels. It also provides the opportunity to study the nature and implications of new forms of governance in rural contexts. The key elements of the ICRPS program are: two-week international summer institute, comparative rural policy research project, and online distance learning courses.