Placements

The MAPP programme is designed to create meaningful placement and professional exposure opportunities across the broader public policy ecosystem.

Students may find opportunities in:

• Policy research and consulting firms
• Government fellowships and advisory roles
• Development sector organisations and NGOs
• Think tanks and advocacy institutions
• CSR and social impact initiatives
• Policy communication, media and public engagement platforms

A key component supporting this is the Policy Practice School, where students engage with live policy problems, field-based projects and implementation-oriented work. Through interactions with practitioners from government, consulting and civil society spaces, students gain practical exposure to how policy is designed, negotiated and implemented on the ground.

The programme is also building collaborations with organisations across the policy ecosystem, including development sector institutions alongside NGOs, think tanks and implementation partners. These collaborations are intended to provide:

• Internship and project opportunities
• Practitioner mentorship
• Institutional exposure
• Pathways into early-career professional roles

Career support is treated as a continuous process rather than a single placement cycle. Students receive support through:

• Faculty mentorship and guidance
• Practitioner interactions and networking opportunities
• Workshops on policy careers and professional development
• Portfolio building through policy briefs, writing samples and fieldwork outputs

Career Pathways

Public policy is not a single profession but a field of practice that cuts across sectors, institutions and disciplines. The MAPP programme therefore approaches careers as evolving pathways rather than fixed job destinations.

Graduates often move across different domains over the course of their careers—combining research, implementation, advisory work, advocacy and public engagement. The programme is designed to prepare students for this fluidity by equipping them with intellectual depth, analytical rigour and practical understanding.

To help students build domain expertise, the programme offers structured specialisation pathways in areas such as:

• Climate and sustainability
• Urban governance
• Development and livelihoods
• Technology and policy
• Social sector and public systems

These pathways are intended not only to deepen subject knowledge, but also to help students identify where and how they wish to intervene in public systems and processes.

At the core of the programme is an emphasis on transferable skills that remain valuable across sectors and roles, including:

• Policy analysis and research
• Writing and communication for diverse audiences
• Data interpretation and evidence-based reasoning
• Institutional and political understanding
• Ethical reasoning and judgment

The programme is built around a simple idea:

• Careers in public policy emerge at the intersection of knowledge, practice and purpose.

Its goal is to ensure that students:

• Understand the complexity of public systems
• Develop the skills required to engage with them meaningfully
• Build career pathways that are both professionally viable and socially impactful