Your introduction to life at the Blavatnik School – your intellectual home not only for the next year but for the rest of your lives. Induction has three goals:

• become familiar with your fellow students, members of faculty, the School, its staff and its facilities; and also with your College, the University and the City of Oxford;
• become familiar with the intellectual environment at the Blavatnik School, which is driven by the spirit of inquiry and debate in the pursuit of truth and excellence; and
• become familiar with the values of the Blavatnik School community; respect, integrity and learning from diversity. 

This intensive module commences during the first two weeks of the MPP. During this period, you will be engaged in a series of case study discussions and team-building exercises and a rigorous policy exercise. The case studies will set the stage for the ambitions of Blavatnik School graduates by exploring how leading public service figures define, analyse, and address major public policy challenges. The team-building exercise is an experiential problem-solving challenge designed to help you build skills such as active listening, empathy, information sharing, and critical analytical thinking. The policy exercise explores what it means to achieve a 'world better governed'.

You will be assigned an academic supervisor who provides one-to-one advice on curricular aspects of the MPP. The University, the students' colleges and the Blavatnik School also aspire to provide a supportive environment for student wellbeing throughout the year.

One of the consistent responses from senior government practitioners is that they want policymakers who are not just skilled across a range of professional competencies, but also have a humane outlook and a moral compass. Foundations challenges you to think deeply to explore your own basic moral and political outlook, and reflect formally on the moral values and goals that do, and should, apply in public policy. You will be introduced to philosophical concepts and ethical dilemmas facing governments around the world.

Public policy leaders frequently interact with professional economists. This course aims to prepare MPP graduates to be critical consumers of economic thinking. You will explore economists’ focus on markets, consider the challenges of financing policy via taxation, focus on design and how to choose between competing project designs, and examine the political obstacles that can hinder implementation, together with solutions suggested by the economic literature on institutions.

Policymaking is a fundamentally political process. The Politics of Policymaking will help prepare you to be a successful agent for change across diverse institutional contexts by learning how to ‘think politically'. You will consider how actors and institutions shape outcomes in domestic and international politics. Understanding and navigating these dynamics is essential for the advocacy for, design of, and implementation of successful policies. You will learn how to think politically, so as to be able get things done and effect meaningful change in policy and in government.

Law provides a framework within which public policy is developed, shaped and implemented. In the Law and Public Policy module you will explore the key ideas which underpin how legal systems work, and how law both constrains and can be used as a tool in the policy process.

How do policymakers know whether their policies meet their intended objectives? Can they improve the way policies are implemented? Given limited government budgets, these questions are increasingly at the heart of public policy. The aim of the Evidence in Public Policy module is to provide you with an understanding of how policymakers gather, assess and use evidence in practice.

In Trinity term you will select two option modules, allowing you to specialise on issues of particular interest. The option modules cover a range of contemporary policy issues and the selection may differ from year to year. Previous years have seen modules on Africa, big data, the challenges of democratisation, climate change, cybersecurity, economic development, education policy, governing in a digital age, international economic relations of governments, international migration, legal and illegal politics, police and policing, political communication, social policy, sustainable nutrition, urban challenges in developing countries, and taxing business.

Policy Challenge II is an opportunity to bring together all the learnings from the MPP to address contemporary policy dilemmas in a simulation-type setting. It requires you to go beyond determining what theoretically ‘optimal’ policy should look like to developing deliverable policy for the real world. Additionally, you will experience the dynamics of multilateral negotiations, interest group politics, and the interface between domestic and international politics. 

The Policy Report is the final compulsory assessed component of the MPP. It is an opportunity to apply the skills you developed on the MPP to answer a policy question of interest to you and address a real-world policy challenge. The module lasts for a minimum of six weeks at the end of the academic components, the output of which is a 4,500-word Policy Report that is submitted for assessment.  

Material for your report can be sourced through one of two pathways: 

• a placement with an external host organisation engaged in some aspect of policy work, such as a government department, a multilateral or not-for-profit organisation or a think tank. During your placement, you would be expected to engage in a policy-related task such as an in-depth analysis of a policy issue of interest to your host organisation or contributing to a specific process such as the drafting of a policy document.  
• an independent desk study under the light-touch oversight of a policy practitioner, academic faculty or research centre. This can provide a chance to deepen your expertise in an existing area of specialisation for career progression, or to explore a new policy area for a potential career pivot. 

The Policy Report is also an opportunity to gain experience or deepen expertise, build networks and produce a piece of high-quality work that showcases your policy skills, thereby building your ‘personal brand’. We encourage you to consider how it might fit with your aspirations at various stages of your career, even if you are mid-career or in senior leadership. You are responsible for securing your own placement or desk study, though several opportunities may be available through the School from past or new host organisations.  

Please note, some scholarships or loans may have certain requirements regarding the location or nature of your placement, so you are advised to check the terms of your specific scholarship ahead of time. 

In addition to term-long core modules you will also choose four intensive Applied Policy modules. These enable you to apply your theoretical learning, build module-specific sets of skills and knowledge, and understand the important fundamental principles involved in decision-making by different groups of stakeholders. Previous Applied Policy modules have included: communications, private finance, public budgeting, and negotiations. The selection may differ from year to year.

To complement the MPP and its learning outcomes, the School offers a range of professional skills sessions designed to help you acquire, develop and enhance practical and transferable skills necessary for a successful career in public policy. You are encouraged to reflect upon your own professional experiences and to identify skills that you wish to acquire, develop or enhance during your time on the course. You are also strongly encouraged to draw upon the extensive range of experiences within the student cohort and share your own.