The Hertie School starts the new Academic Year 2020/21 with prominent new faculty members and record number of students.
The Hertie School starts the new Academic Year 2020/21 with two prominent new faculty members: Sébastien Mena, an expert in the interaction between business and society, focusing on corporate responsibility, governance and sustainability, and Cathryn Costello, an expert in international refugee and migration law. In addition, renowned political scientist and 2020 Michael Endres Prize winner Frank Schimmelfennig has joined the Hertie School as visiting professor.
Mena, Professor of Organization and Governance, comes to the Hertie School from Cass Business School, City University of London, where he was Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Management. His current research examines how firms interact with civil society in areas like shareholder activism, sustainability programmes in developing countries and sustainable banking.
Costello, Professor of Fundamental Rights and the new co-director at the Hertie School Centre for Fundamental Rights, comes from the University of Oxford, where she was the Andrew W Mellon Professor of Refugee and Migration Law. Meanwhile, Schimmelfennig’s research interests lie in European integration, in particular, integration theory, differentiated integration, EU enlargement and democratisation.
For the start of the Academic Year 2020/21, the Hertie School welcomed a record number of new students: 161 Master of Public Policy and 79 Master of International Affairs students from over 40 countries. In total, there are 240 first year and 258 second year students enrolled at the Hertie School. 28 mid-career professionals have begun an Executive Master of Administration, and 16 new PhD researchers have come to Hertie School.
Most students have begun their studies this term on campus in Berlin, roughly a third of students have joined their programme remotely. The Hertie School’s Digital Learning and IT teams have developed learning tools, trained faculty and assistants and outfitted classrooms with the right technology to facilitate remote learning. A combination of pre-recorded and live classes will accommodate different time zones and classes are designed to provide immersive and collaborative opportunities for students to engage with the class material, with their peers, and with their instructors. On site, the School has implemented a number of rules and measures for daily operations, closely aligned with local regulations from the State of Berlin, to ensure a safe and healthy environment and learning experience.