Hertie School welcomes 285 new students from 50 countries at opening of academic year

Berlin, 31 August 2017 – The Hertie School of Governance welcomes 285 new students from 50 countries at the start of the academic year 2017/18. Around 200 will complete a Master of Public Policy or a Master of International Affairs over the next two years. Fifty others are in Berlin on academic exchanges, and will return after a year to one of the Hertie School’s 26 partner institutions around the world. A further 25 are taking part in the Executive Programme, and 15 are pursuing doctoral degrees at the Hertie School.

As part of the celebration to open to the academic year on 31 August 2017, the Hertie School will award the Dr. Michael Endres Prize for the first time. The prize is named for the long-time Chairman and current honourary Chairman of the Hertie Foundation’s Board of Trustees, Dr. Michael Endres, who was instrumental in founding the Hertie School in 2003 and who has helped guide its successful development since.

The research prize honours distinguished academics whose work centres on topics within the spectrum of the Hertie School’s research and teaching, and who have helped bridge academic research and policymaking.

The first recipient is Dr. Theodor Baums, Professor for Civil, Trade and Business Law at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. An expert on corporate governance, Baums plans to pursue the offer that accompanies the prize and advance his area of research through a series of events at the Hertie School and a subsequent publication.

The opening lecture, titled 'Fragility and resilience: What can save Europe from itself?', will be held by Ivan Krastev, the Bulgarian political scientist and Director of the Centre for Liberal Strategies. Krastev is a leading European democracy expert.

The festivities will continue on 1 September with a celebration honouring the ninth graduating class of the Executive Master of Public Administration. The 24 graduates come from 12 countries and have on average ten years of professional experience in the public sector, in business, and in the non-profit sector. Constanze Stelzenmüller is this year’s graduation speaker. She is the Robert Bosch Senior Fellow at the renowned Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.

Find more information about the opening of the academic year and the award ceremony honouring Theodor Baums, as well as the lecture by Ivan Krastev on 31 August at 6.30 pm. The event is open to the press with prior registration.

The Hertie School of Governance is a private university based in Berlin, Germany, accredited by the state and the German Science Council. It prepares exceptional students for leadership positions in government, business, and civil society. Interdisciplinary and practice-oriented teaching, first-class research and an extensive international network set the Hertie School apart and position it as an ambassador of good governance, characterised by public debate and engagement. The school was founded at the end of 2003 as a project of the Hertie Foundation, which remains its major partner. www.hertie-school.org