Last week, we welcomed a new cohort of students, who have come from across the globe to join our Master of Science in Public Policy and Human Development (MPP) programme. Before diving into their studies, more than 80 students from 29 countries stepped into student life at UNU-MERIT through two introduction days filled with workshops, informational fairs, and group activities exploring their new home in the city of Maastricht. Here, we captured the first moments of their academic journey. ...
New pilot programme provides online certification to professional education – and enhanced employment value As a working professional, Joshua Antwi from Ghana was unable to enroll in UNU-MERIT’s full-time Master in Public Policy and Human Development (MPP) programme, despite his desire to acquire some of its taught skills in order to apply them to his career. On Thursday 15 June 2023, Antwi celebrated his completion of a different route to achieving his goal: graduating from a short cour...
Speeches, emotions and the joy of ending an academic journey On Thursday 15 June 2023, we celebrated our 2022-23 Master’s in Public Policy and Human Development (MPP) cohort in the annual MPP Closing Ceremony. UNU-MERIT Director Bartel van de Walle opened the ceremony by thanking the students and their parents for entrusting UNU-MERIT with the privilege of educating this next generation of policy experts that will uphold the values of the UN. It was also a special occasion fo...
Free tote bags! Photo corners! Q&As! Snacks! On Saturday 18 March 2023, UNU-MERIT opened its doors to the public for the second Master’s Open Day of the academic year, welcoming potential students to find out more about our MSc in Public Policy and Human Development programme (MPP for short) by visiting the institute in-person and tuning in online. Two informative and Q&A sessions, tours around the institute, and stations from each of our five MPP specializations served to show how...
Our quarterly newsletter rounds up the latest news and events from UNU-MERIT and its School of Governance. We explore the push and pull of international development: innovation through science and entrepreneurship, and governance through public policy analysis. ...
How to choose a topic for your master’s thesis? “Few assignments can be as intimidating at university as writing a thesis,” acknowledges Master’s student Lais Bonetto. How do you pick your topic and how do you conduct your research? Find out what motivated Lais and her fellow students in their choices. Enter keywords...
On 25 November 2021, staff and students representing our Master of Science in Public Policy and Human Development (MPP) commemorated the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. The event aimed to raise awareness about the issue, while also presenting the MPP’s new Sexual Harassment Document. This awareness document reflects the commitment of the MPP to contribute to the elimination of gender-based violence, and provides students and staff with resources to...
Our Master’s alumna Claire Tan Sze Eng has won the best thesis award at the Dutch Demography Day 2021 for her dissertation entitled, ‘Returning to a home without a future: The effect of migrant trajectories and experiences on the reintegration of Albanian rejected asylum-seekers’. Based on some 40 in-depth interviews carried out under the EU-funded ADMIGOV project in the first quarter of 2020, the study found strong intersectionality between economic, psychological and security reintegration out...
Our Master’s alumni Vivien Csapliczky (pictured far left) and Job Zomerplaag (pictured far right) have won the biennial ‘Kremers Award’ for having written the best dissertations on regional innovation from a socio-economic perspective. Their theses respectively focused on regional development and digitalisation in southwest Hungary and the (dis)empowerment of community initiatives in the southeast of the Netherlands. Job Zomerplaag, now an editor at Studio Europa Maastricht, said: “Studyin...