We are delighted to announce that Dr. Carlos Cadena Gaitán, a graduate of our PhD programme, has been named Transport Secretary for the City of Medellín, Colombia. Dr. Cadena Gaitán is a well-known transport and environmental activist. He is co-founder of La Ciudad Verde (the Green City) initiative, project coordinator of the Low Carbon City Forum, and various other artistic and cultural organisations. In recognition of his work, he received the ‘Future Sustainability Leader’ award in Oslo in Ju...
On Tuesday 24 December 2019 Maastricht University has fallen victim to a massive ransomware attack. Most IT services are currently offline, but in order to inform staff and students UM publishes the latest updates regarding the attack on its website: www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/update-cyberattack...
Marking International Migrants Day, 18 December 2019, our new Director of Executive Education and Capacity Building in Migration at UNU-MERIT, Nava Hinrichs, joined a conference on “Advancing Human Capital Development through Migration and Innovation” at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, based in Vienna. Contributing to a panel discussion on “Harnessing innovation to promote prosperous, diverse and inclusive societies”, Nava spoke on three key points, outlined below. Firs...
Beyond Static Inequality, Thailand “A recent study reveals that in OECD countries, children from poor families would need at least 150 years to reach the average income level, while in some developing countries such as Brazil, Colombia and South Africa, it could take as long as 300 years.” Enter keywords...
One of the most surprising and disruptive developments of the last few years has been the “fake news” phenomenon. It’s now increasingly clear who benefits in terms of power and influence; what’s less clear is why people continue to believe in it, even when “alternative facts” are categorically and repeatedly debunked. Back in 2016, UNU-MERIT was asked by the City of Knowledge in Panama to lead a science reporting workshop for journalists, communications officers and policymakers. We ambitiously ...
During our Master’s Open Day, we welcome prospective students and give them a general overview of the programme and its seven specialisations. We also invite alumni back to share how the programme prepared them to kick-start their careers in international development. On our Open Day in November 2019, I caught up with four alumni from different cohorts who reflected on the programme and their careers. Welcome back — thank you for taking the time to visit us! Let’s first have a brief ...
A Sentinel’s Eyes on Earth “It’s inspiring to see the potential of satellite-based Earth observation, and how researchers and policymakers can work together to mitigate the damage caused by these weather events.” Enter keywords...
Technical experts, government employees, academics and others are trained at an early age to shorten terms into acronyms. This makes their writing hard to read and difficult to locate on the Internet, writes Floyd Whaley, Editor of the Asian Development Blog, in his second guest post for the United Nations University. … Acronyms – or a series of letters that represent a longer phrase – are common in many professions and organisations but they are also a good way to FYRTCD your writing. Odd...
One standardised assessment tool has become the key benchmark for national governments to judge their schools’ successes. But the academic rankings generated by the Program in International Student Assessment (PISA) are eclipsing important questions such as how particular groups of students are doing in school or graduation rates....
I previously worked at the UN ECLAC in Santiago de Chile, in a division that has partnered with UNU-MERIT on various projects. For two years I worked under Mario Cimoli, who used to be a colleague of UNU-MERIT Director, Bart Verspagen. It was Mario who first told me about the programme. Then Alejandro Lavopa, a PhD fellow at UNU-MERIT at the time, visited ECLAC and suggested that I apply for the PhD programme. So I learned about it by word of mouth....