Blavatnik School of Government

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University

Blavatnik School of Government  link () Website
Headquarters	Oxford University,England,UK
Membership	Ngaire Woods, Dustin Brown , Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, Persio Arida, Shobhana Bhartia, John Browne (Executive), Jin-Yong Cai, Mark Carney, William Jefferson Clinton, Sally Davies, Mathias Döpfner, Philipp Hildebrand, John Hood, Andrónico Luksic, Maria Ramos, Eric Schmidt, Hidehiko Yuzaki, Beth Blauer, Lawrence Freedman, Christopher Hood, Andrew Higham, Donald Moynihan, Matthew Rycroft, Stephen Rapp, Federica D’Alessandra, Eldar Shafir, Eviatar Matania, Paul Collier, Karthik Ramanna, Jonathan Wolff, Elizabeth Stubbins Bates, , Yann Algan, Douglas Elmendorf, Michael Ignatieff, Xue Lan, Vali Nasr, Majid Khadduri, Enase Okonedo, Cecilia Rouse, Elena Gadjanova, Jody LaPorte
Leadership cadre course with deep state ties

The Blavatnik School of Government is a school of public policy founded in 2010 as part of Oxford University's Social Sciences Division. The School offers a Master of Public Policy (MPP), a one-year graduate degree which prepare students - mostly unelected leaders and "changemakers" - "to improve government around the world." It was founded in 2010, financed by Britain's richest man at the time, Len Blavatnik.

Staff and Advisory Council

Staff include Professor Ngaire Woods is the first Dean of the School. Members of faculty include development economists Sir Paul Collier, who is Professor of Economics and Public Policy, Stefan Dercon, who is Professor of Economic Policy, Karthik Ramanna, who is Professor of Business and Public Policy, and Jonathan Wolff, who is Professor of Public Policy,Eviatar Matania,Founder and Former Director General of the Israeli National Cyber Security Authority; and Michael Igniatieff, rector of the George Soros-funded Central European University.

The International Advisory Board have people like Bill Clinton; Philipp Hildebrand Vice Chairman of BlackRock, the world's most powerful company, and Eric Schmidt, Former Executive Chairman of Google and Alphabet.

Curriculum

The point of the course is to create a cadre of leaders in public service, doing "advocacy for, design of, and implementation of successful policies" in the government bureaucracy, on behalf of multinational companies and self-apppointed spokesmen for the people in NGOs. The school also tries to create an insider network of these leaders, to "form a vibrant exchange network that will continue to support you after the experience at the Blavatnik School, and into your future careers."

The curriculum states: "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."

Underscoring the top-down power structure this school is part of, it gives the leadership cadre the possibility to develop their "professional skills through modules delivered by leading policy practitioners on topics such as negotiation, communication, private finance and entrepreneurship," where insider connections and private finance by the richest people in the land (like Blavatnik) is seen as a natural thing.

Former Students

The School mentions engineers, journalists, medical doctors and serving government officials as of particular interest.

A cursory look at the alumni show some with intelligence ties, like Jonathan Beddall (MPP Class of 2012) who won best performing Officer Cadet at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst (UK), from The Intelligence Corps..

A high number of alumni are managers in multinational companies, like Aïda Ndiaye, who worked with Facebook to suppress fake news in Africa, "devising the right policies" to "create a win-win situation for private sector actors and governments", and as an afterthought "as well as for the people they serve.”

Keir Mather is probably the most high profile alumnus of the MPP program to date, having been elected at the 2023 Selby and Ainsty by-election as the youngest MP (aged 25) in the House of Commons.