Master in Public Policy and Governance (MPPG) is an international master degree program in the Department of Political Science and Sociology (PSS) at North South University. The program started in Fall 2008 semester, jointly with Department of Administration and Organization Theory of University of Bergen (UiB), Norway and Central Department of Public Administration (CDPA) of Tribhuvan University (TU), Nepal. University of Peradeniya (UoP) from Sri Lanka joined the partnership group around the end of 2008.
In the beginning, this program was funded by NOMA (NORAD’s Master Studies Program) from 2007 to 2011 as part of the capacity building of the public sector management practitioners. Afterwards the program was funded through NORHED Funding (2013-2020); and NORPART Funding (2017-2021) projects. All these were financed by NORAD and the Norwegian Ministry of Education for running the program. Now the MPPG program is fully funded by NSU.
The MPPG aims at teaching students on policy and governance issues belonging to the government and non-government institutions. This will contribute to producing a competent and qualified workforce to identify, diagnose and address social problems in South Asia. The program is successfully running for almost 14 years with one annual intake. A total of 173 master degree students have already graduated from the program. These students come from Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan and a majority of them are from the civil services (at the level of Senior/Assistant Secretary). This program has gained popularity at home and the partnering countries. The duration of the Master program is 2 years in 4 Semesters. At least 50% of MPPG students are female.
The MPPG degree is awarded by NSU, Bangladesh. It is a unique program in South Asia and is attractive to prospective students from this region. Therefore, the program admits students from South Asia other than Bangladeshi students. Some of the graduates are the faculty member of the partner universities and hence likely to strengthen teaching and research capacity in these institutions. In addition, the MPPG alumni from Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka were appointed or posted in higher education institutions, civil administration, public training colleges for civil servants, international and national NGOs, and government ministries.