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IIPP celebrates the graduation of its second MPA cohort

18 July 2022

IIPP was delighted to welcome back its 2020-21 cohort of Master of Public Administration students to celebrate their graduation.

MPA Graduation picture

On 1 July, IIPP was delighted to welcome back its second Master of Public Administration cohort (2020-21) for their graduation ceremony - marking the first in person graduation ceremony since the pandemic. The MPA exists to train the next generation of leaders, and students come from a wide variety of professional backgrounds.

As Professor Rainer Kattel, Deputy Director of IIPP, said:

“IIPP’s radical ambition is to rethink the state, and this requires almost a complete overhaul of what it means to educate civil servants. Innovation, purpose, and value should be all at heart of what public service is about. Our second cohort of MPA students taught us perhaps as much as we taught them, helping us make huge strides in developing our curriculum” 

A running theme of the faculty speeches was resilience. Travel restrictions and a globally diverse group meant some late night and early morning seminars. Despite those difficulties, the course had impact.

Teresa Miquel Arce, a student last year, said: 

“[The MPA] has allowed me to challenge how I used to do things and to try the new approaches taught in the programme, which represent a better way to generate more value for society” 

A unique feature of the MPA is the third term placements in which students apply their learning from the first two terms to real-world challenges with partner organisations. We are particularly grateful to those partners for making such a success of online placements. Previous cohorts have followed a wide variety of career paths, having gone on to lead Missions in local councils, work in think tanks and charities, take senior positions in national governments, return to IIPP, amongst many other things. 

Reflecting on the event, Dr. Kate Roll, Head of Teaching at IIPP, said: 

“It was wonderful to celebrate this milestone together – in person! This class has been one marked by resilience, good humour, passion and smarts, and the ability to form strong bonds with each other and with IIPP despite the pandemic. We are honoured that they joined IIPP and are so pleased, now, to have them as alumni.” 

Further information:

  • Learn more about IIPP's MPA programme here