Our Master of Science in Public Policy and Human Development (MPP) made it into the Top 20 of the Going BEYOND Award from the ‘Global Business School Network’, a non-profit organisation founded by the World Bank in 2003, based in Washington DC, USA. The award recognises programmes and initiatives that demonstrate a positive impact on society, and that go BEYOND traditional offerings from academic institutions and research journals. In particular, winning entries should show how they: Empower and...
On 3 November 2021, students of the Master’s of Science in Public Policy and Human Development (MPP) presented papers that they had written for their Public Policy course. Their papers variously analysed the influence of civil society in the policy process of a selected county and on a selected policy problem, and the event aimed to encouraged open debate. ...
A post by Lisa Färber, former Student Ambassador on our MSc. in Public Policy and Human Development (MPP) … Just a couple of years ago, I was looking for a truly future-oriented Master’s programme. It’s a competitive market, with glossy brochures and slick videos all over social media. But what I’ve always found most helpful is the ‘word of mouth’: i.e. hearing first-hand from alumni or current students what a course is like in practice. So when I saw the advert for the new MPP Ambas...
We held the closing ceremony for our Master’s in Public Policy and Human Development (MPP) on 10 June 2021 to commemorate the past academic year and to celebrate the success of the cohort. After a year of COVID-19, this event brought many students and faculty together for the first time, and was a memorable event on many fronts. The event was moderated by Academic Programme Director Julieta Marotta and Professor Franziska Gassmann, and included talks from the MPP student ambassador, student gove...
“Hello everyone. First of all, I’d like to thank Julieta for having invited me to deliver this keynote and the MPP team for organizing this wonderful event. I’m honoured and delighted. Recent events have given credence to a buzzword used to describe certain markets: VUCA, as in Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. This term now captures the essence of our entire world. Who would have imagined that a virus infestation would implode in China as an endogenous shock and be c...
A unique partnership between the United Nations University and Maastricht University in the south of the Netherlands, our Master in Public Policy and Human Development features seven specialisations. See our new video interviews for the inside track on all the above. ...
A post by Diana Owuor, a student on our MSc. in Public Policy and Human Development (MPP). … In the ‘New Thinking for a New World’ podcast series by the Tällberg Foundation, Alan Stoga rightly states that one characteristic of the global response to COVID-19 is that it has not been global. A fairly state-centric and regional response has crowded a global approach in several areas. While this poses some challenges, it also offers opportunities- some of which have been unexpected. This artic...
This year’s International Education Day, 24 January, occurs in the wake of a global pandemic that closed schools and universities worldwide, affecting 1.6 billion students in almost 200 countries — including some 120 Master’s students at UNU-MERIT in the Netherlands. Against this difficult backdrop, we raised our game to another level by hosting an online conference with real-life policymakers. The overall aim was to make our Master’s programme more engaging, more real an...
Desertification may still seem like a far-off scenario for Dutch farmers, but it is a growing problem worldwide. The use of pesticides in agriculture, as well as the focus on monoculture, is depleting farmland to the point that it becomes lifeless land and ultimately desert. UM students Vincent and Laura Nieboer, inspired by their father, came up with an accessible concept to help farmers worldwide stop this process. They recently pitched their idea at the ‘Little Big Talks’ on the occasion of t...
We have received the shocking and tragic news of the sudden passing away of our Master’s alumnus Simon Neuland at the age of 30, last Friday. Simon was part of the 2013-14 cohort on our Master of Science in Public Policy and Human Development (MPP), in the Social Protection Specialisation. We remember Simon as a very cheerful person, smart, kind, supportive, and always helpful. From the accounts of all those who knew him, he was a fine human being who will be utterly missed. The staff and ...