With neat green lawns and clean white arches, the colonial-era architecture of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy reflects the calm and order typical of Singapore. The campus was once home to Raffles College, the alma mater of Mr Lee, Singapore’s founding father, who is credited with driving the efficient government and faultless public services that add to the draw of studying policy in the city-state.
“Singapore is a wonderful public policy laboratory,” says Kishore Mahbubani, dean at the Lee Kuan Yew School. For years, growing numbers of students in the US and Europe have been opting for a Master of Public Policy (MPP) over the traditional MBA as they search for a course that trains students for government, civil society and the media.
As policymakers around the world look to Asia, drawn by the prospect of fast-growing markets such as China and India, many students are keen to gain experience on the continent, flocking to institutions like the Lee Kuan Yew School, the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Tokyo and the Jindal School of Government and Public Policy near New Delhi, all of which run MPP courses in English.