Ninth Master of Public Policy Cohort with 125 Graduates.
Berlin, 5 June 2015 – The Hertie School will, for the first time, confer degrees on its doctoral graduates today as part of a graduation ceremony in the Konzerthaus Berlin. Seven candidates have successfully fulfilled the requirements for a doctorate or PhD at the Hertie School since it was awarded the right to confer doctoral degrees in 2012. The School’s President Helmut K. Anheier will also present 125 graduates of the Master of Public Policy programme with their degrees.
The commencement speaker for this year’s graduation with 500 guests is Transparency International’s Managing Director, Cobus de Swardt. “The fight against corruption is central to the struggle for human rights and social justice. I hope you – Class of 2015 – will add your voice and energies to the tasks of demanding and building transparency and accountability across all sectors of society”, said De Swardt, whose own contribution to this fight started as a young activist against South Africa’s Apartheid regime.
The 2015 MPP graduates come from 31 countries. Almost half of this year’s cohort either completed an exchange semester at one of 15 international partner universities or a Dual Degree with Columbia University in New York, London School of Economics, Sciences Po Paris, Bocconi University in Milan or the University of Tokyo. Nine of the graduates have completed the EU-funded Atlantis Programme, jointly offered by the Hertie School, the Erasmus University in The Hague and Syracuse University in New York.
In addition, all of the MPP graduates have gained professional experience during their internships and, in some cases, a Professional Year. These were, for example, completed in German Federal Ministries, the White House, corporate headquarters or Germany’s Development Agency, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).