Master’s Voice

Last month, the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth ran a campaign to celebrate International Youth Day (which falls on 12th August every year). This initiative was aimed at showcasing young people’s resilience, resourcefulness and leadership to create a better world for all under the ...

A guest post by Veerle Joosen, recent graduate of the Sustainability Science, Policy & Society (SSPS) master’s degree at Maastricht University, whose thesis was supervised by Sonja Fransen, lead researcher of UNU-MERIT’s Comprehensive Innovation Team on Migration. Throughout...

New investigative podcast by UNU-MERIT alumnus narrates the story of this contentious policy   In 2021, El Salvador became the first country in the world to declare bitcoin as an official currency alongside the U.S. dollar. But almost two years after this law came into effect, th...

A guest post by Betsabé Vásquez Martínez, current student in our 2022-23 MPP cohort   The CBP One app was launched in 2020 as a portal that provides migrants with a variety of US Customs and Border Protection services. With the introduction of Title 42 (a legal clause invoked by ...

A guest post by Francisco Mango, alumnus of last year’s 2021-22 MPP cohort   Research indicates that subnational actors may play a key role in the fight against the climate crisis Climate change is perhaps the most critical threat to human development. Despite this, multilateral ...

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 thankin...

A guest post by Anne Droste, current student in our 2022-23 MPP cohort With the introduction of the Opportunity Residence Act (which came into force in Germany on 31 December 2022), many long-term ‘tolerated’ migrants now have the chance to receive a residence permit. However, due to ...

A guest post by Giulia Mori, current student in our 2022-23 MPP cohort The Italian agricultural sector relies heavily on migrant workers, who accounted for almost 400,000 workers in 2020, corresponding to more than 30% of Italy’s agricultural labour force. Migrants working in the Ital...

Here’s what happened at the first Critical Policy Conference A guest post by Vincent Tadday, Global Studies student at Maastricht University     To effect real change in policy and create social impact by way of re-imagination processes and dialogue, a new student-led initia...