Doctoral students studying public budgeting and financial management are benefiting from a consortium offered through a partnership between the Maxwell School and several other institutions.

Yilin Hou, professor of public administration and international affairs, is among those who conceived of the idea to address challenges faced by institutions that offered the graduate degree program. Bringing students together from each school makes for a larger learning network, makes for more efficient use of resources and provides participants the opportunity to learn from a wider group of scholars and experts in topical areas.

Hou, who is a senior research associate with the Center for Policy Research, was among those who advanced the idea at the Association for Budgeting and Financial Management’s 2019 annual conference. He serves on the consortium’s executive committee and teaches one of its three courses. In addition to Syracuse University, the consortium includes the University of Colorado, Denver; Georgia State University; Northern Illinois University; the University of Georgia; the University of Illinois at Chicago; the University of Kentucky; the University of Maryland at College Park; and the University of Nebraska, Omaha.

“The consortium opens up a new path, with a brand-new model, for educating doctoral students in specialty areas,” says Hou. “The online format and class delivery rides ahead of the wave of Zoom classrooms made widely accepted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Its pilot phase in the past year has proved a great success.”