Undergraduates often enroll in courses at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) to fulfill concentration requirements. Please note that there are two sets of such courses, and policies for them differ:
- Some HKS courses are cross-listed or jointly offered with the Government Department. Undergraduates can enroll in these courses during the normal FAS pre-term registration period (November 5-19, 2025 for the Spring 2026 term).
- Other HKS classes are available for undergraduates to enroll in through cross-registration. Enrollment for these courses is at the start of the semester, in accordance with the HKS academic calendar.
HKS Courses Cross-Listed or Jointly Offered with the Government Department
Cross-listed and jointly-offered courses show up in my.harvard with separate HKS and Government course numbers. College students should sign up for these courses under the Government course numbers, not the HKS ones. When taken under the Government course numbers, these courses are not subject to the College’s cross-registration policies–that is, they treated the same as any other Government Department courses for the purpose of concentration policies, and they will count toward an undergraduate’s official College and concentration GPA. In addition, undergraduates can enroll in them during the normal FAS registration period several months in advance of the start of the term:
| Gov 1540 (DPI 115) | The American Presidency | Roger Porter | Fall |
| Gov 1092 (DPI 348) | Progressive Alternatives: Institutional Reconstruction Today | Roberto Unger | Spring |
| Gov 1535 (DPI 505) | The Supreme Court, Law, and Public Policy | Maya Sen | Fall |
| Gov 1719 (DPI 608) | Political Communication Breakdown: Causes, Consequences, and Solutions | Matthew Baum | Spring |
| Gov 1003 (DPI 610) | Data Science for Politics | Benjamin Schneer | Spring |
| Gov 1796 (IGA 211) | Central Challenges of American National Security, Strategy, and the Press | Graham Allison, David Sanger, & Derek Reveron | Fall |
| Gov 1736 (IGA 233) | Rethinking Nuclear Deterrence | Matthew Bunn | Fall |
Other Courses at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS)
In addition to the classes above, there are courses on political-science topics at HKS that Government students may enroll in through cross-registration. Government concentrators are allowed to meet up to 2 of their 3-4 elective requirements through courses at HKS, chosen from the list below. Please note that secondary-field requirements cannot be met through cross-registration into courses at HKS. Enrollment in HKS courses is always at the discretion of the HKS professor; please refer to the HKS website for additional instructions.
Concentrators do not need to request permission to count the courses below for concentration credit. Concentrators may petition to count other HKS courses for concentration credit by completing the following form: https://bit.ly/Gov_Elective_Credit_Petition.
Undergraduates are welcome to cross-register into more than 2 classes at HKS toward their 128-credit College graduation requirement, but no more than 2 cross-registered HKS classes will count toward concentration credit. In addition, please note that as of July 2024, no classes taken through cross-registration are counted toward a student’s official undergraduate GPA (unless a student receives a failing grade), although they are counted towards the concentration GPA for Government department honors determination. See the FAS Registrar’s webpage on cross-registration for more information.
**Cross-registration for Spring 2026 HKS courses begins on January 23, 2026. Undergraduates interested in cross-registering are encouraged to enroll in a fourth FAS course during the November pre-term registration period and then utilize the add/drop period in January 2026 to make changes to their schedule.
Harvard Kennedy School Courses Preapproved for Government Concentration Credit, 2025-26
Business and Government Policy
| BGP 100 | The Business-Government Relationship in the United States | Roger Porter | Spring |
| BGP 610 | The Political Economy of Trade | Robert Lawrence | Fall |
Democracy, Politics and Institutions
| DPI 120 | The U.S. Congress and Law Making | David King | Spring |
| DPI 122 | Becoming a Policy Entrepreneur in the United States | David King | Fall |
| DPI 207 | Philosophy of Technology: From Marx and Heidegger to AI, Genome Editing, and Geoengineering | Mathias Risse | Spring |
| DPI 415 | Comparative Politics | Pippa Norris | Fall |
| DPI 418 | The Rise of Authoritarian Populism | Pippa Norris | Fall |
| DPI 450 | The Political Economy of Transition in China | Anthony Saich | Fall |
| DPI 543 | Corruption: Finding It and Fixing It | Jeeyang Rhee Baum | Fall |
| DPI 703 | Democracy: The Long View and the Bumpy History | Alex Keyssar | Fall |
Development and Economic Growth
| DEV 130 | Why Are So Many Countries Poor, Volatile, and Unequal? | Ricardo Hausmann | Fall |
| DEV 308 | Social Institutions and Economic Development | Michael Woolcock | Spring |
International and Global Affairs
| IGA 103 | Global Governance | Lotem Bassan-Nygate | Fall |
| IGA 105 | International Law and Global Justice | Kathryn Sikkink | Fall |
| IGA 109 | Negotiation and Diplomacy | Nicholas Burns & James Sibenius | Spring |
| IGA 217 | U.S. Foreign Policy in a Global Age | Fredrik Logevall | Spring |
| IGA 229 | Sex and Violence in Global Politics | Dara Cohen | Fall |
| IGA 236 | Cybersecurity: Technology, Policy, and Law | Simson Garfinkel | Spring |
| IGA 412 | Energy, the Energy Transition, and Global Politics | Meghan O’Sullivan | Spring |
| IGA 513 | Science, Power, and Politics | Sheila Jasanoff | Fall |
| IGA 538 | Technology, Privacy, and the Trans-National Nature of the Internet | James Waldo | Fall |
| IGA 632 | Africa in Global Politics | Zoe Marks | Spring |
| IGA 655 | Middle Eastern Politics and Policy | Tarek Masoud | Spring |
| IGA 662 | The Future of the EU: Migration, Policy, and Politics | James Dennison | Fall |
(Last updated 11/4/2025)