MPP students are to benefit from a new initiative that will offer special opportunities to connect with and learn from a wide range of leading practitioners and experts who visit the School. Dean Ngaire Woods has created a new forum for Blavatnik School students to meet senior policy experts from public, private and charitable sectors, and discuss challenges of leadership and decision making.

As an “extracurricular” component of the MPP course, the new Dean’s Forum will encourage an exchange of views and candid reflections amongst invited speakers and students.

Alongside the academic programme, the Blavatnik School’s Master of Public Policy has been designed to include a variety of practice-focused components, such as Masterclasses with practitioners, skills development sessions and a summer project working opportunity. The new Dean’s Forum adds another dimension to the MPP student experience, as students will join Dean Ngaire Woods in a highly interactive session with specially invited public policy practitioners and global thinker-doers.

Invitations to this term’s series of events have just been issued to students. Speakers who have so far been invited to join Ngaire and our students include:

• Eric Braverman, CEO of the Clinton Foundation, who will share and compare a wealth of leadership experience in the private, public and charitable sectors
• His Excellency Amr Al-Dabbagh, former Minister in charge of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), who has direct experience of public-private partnership initiatives applied to the creation of new cities, and recently co-wrote a book on “Governpreneurship: establishing a thriving entrepreneurial spirit in government.”

The Dean’s Forum is a series of events hosted by Dean Ngaire Woods specifically for students of the Blavatnik School. It’s just one of the many initiatives we have created to help make the student experience here truly outstanding. Other initiatives include a series of career development seminars established to help students back in the workplace, once they complete their MPP. At the end of this term, students will participate in a special week-long simulation of the 2014 CoP climate negotiation process, in which the students, representing various countries and other key actors, will see what kind of outcome they can reach. And collaboration with the Saïd Business School and Rhodes Trust is set to kick off with a co-hosted event later next term, which should see some exciting new partnerships and connections among our students.

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