The University of Virginia Curry School of Education and Human Development and the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy offer a dual degree program that leads to the completion of a PhD in Education Policy and MPP degrees in five to six years. There are a number of complementaries between Curry's PhD program and Batten's MPP program. They both seek high quality students with a commitment to improving policy outcomes, and there is extensive overlap in the coursework in both programs. The goal of a dual PhD in Education Policy/MPP program is to leverage the comparative advantage of both schools toward these mutual interests. Dual degree students take courses at both schools for their first two years and immediately begin working on research projects. Following completion of the MPP at the end of the second year, students finish out course work in the PhD program and complete a dissertation typically within a total of 4-5 years. The dual degree provides a very strong foundation in public policy and applied research in Education Policy. A separate application into the MPP program is required.