CU Joins LSE and Sciences Po in GPPN

Last week, Columbia took another step toward becoming the "global university" that President Lee Bollinger described in his October 2002 address, with the unveiling of the Global Public Policy Network.

The new organization is based on a partnership between the School of International and Public Affairs, the Sciences Po (Paris), and the London School of Economics.

In a Sept. 19 press release, officials from the three institutions hailed the GPPN as a "global network for graduate-level public policy education and policy dialogue that will harness top academic talent to address the most pressing policy challenges of the 21st century."

The announcement comes at a time when Columbia is seeking to increase its international prestige by hosting various influential leaders and scholars. Taking a lead role in the creation of the GPPN, the University may strengthen its reputation as an innovative center of learning, as it did with the World Leaders Forum and the Jan. 2004 recruitment of former Irish president Mary Robinson to
the SIPA faculty.

Meeting in London last February, representatives from the three schools formally developed plans for the GPPN and its curriculum. Their primary focus was to organize specialized two-year degree programs, including the Master of Public Administration degree, said SIPA Dean Lisa Anderson. She acknowledged the growing popularity of such degrees, noting that, in recent years, "100 new MPA programs have been started in China alone. Clearly, it's an important field to be a part of."

The GPPN will make use of the strengths of each member school, allowing graduate students and faculty to study at all three. Anderson said that the first group of participating students will include about 12 from LSE, 13 from Science Po, and "a comparable number" from SIPA.

Anderson expressed hope that students will benefit from the new perspectives offered by LSE and Sciences Po. She explained that "the SIPA curriculum is pretty conventional in comparison to our American peers, but similar programs in Europe focus on different issues. For example, U.S. schools tend to look at economics in policy decisions, but Europeans emphasize law because, to them, public policy is tied to the idea of a regulatory state-it's how they look at the world."

Although the GPPN currently has three members, other schools will be invited to join in coming years. "When we met in February, we made a list of other schools to consider," Anderson said. "We're looking for places that have similar curricula as well as locations in global cities, so that visiting students have extracurricular options that are comparable to those here at SIPA."

Among the schools being considered is the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. The GPPN will also coordinate non-degree programs with schools like the University of Beijing.

Generally, SIPA students reacted with enthusiasm to the announcement. As Thi-Bay Miradoli, a first-year Human Rights concentrator, pointed out, "Because so many changes are occurring in the world, education is becoming more globalized, especially in Europe, and I think it's great that an American university is getting involved in that. Even though the results will be in the long-term, I think [the GPPN] is promising."

Some students were hesitant about the program's implications for career training. "If you're not looking for an international career, then it isn't necessarily good, because part of attending SIPA is to develop professional contacts," said Limarie Cabreia, a first-year MBA student. "Because I'm interested in working in New York City, I sometimes wonder about the value of [the GPPN]."

Despite these uncertainties, Anderson feels that the GPPN will benefit the University as well as students of global policy. "It is an opportunity to expand the SIPA brand, because there are a lot of people who would profit from a SIPA-style education. But it's also a deeply committed partnership between internationally distinguished universities. It is a beginning, and I think it's a very interesting one."

The GPPN will hold its first conference in Paris in March 2006.