The University of Cambridge launches the Bennett School of Public Policy, uniting research, teaching, and real-world impact to shape fair and evidence-based policymaking.
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The official launch of the Bennett School of Public Policy on 6 October 2025 marked a new chapter in the University’s long tradition of bridging rigorous academic teaching and research with real-world impact. The evening brought together colleagues from across academia, business, civic organisations, media, and government to celebrate the evolution of the Bennett Institute for Public Policy into a new department – the Bennett School of Public Policy.
Opening the event, Vice-Chancellor Prof Deborah Prentice welcomed guests and reflected on the School’s journey and purpose. “This launch celebrates the successful evolution from the Bennett Institute to the new Bennett School over the last seven years,” she said. “The Bennett School is dedicated to policy, research, and education that are academically rigorous with profound, real-world impact.”
“The University fully supports the Bennett School’s vision to harness Cambridge’s extraordinary breadth of knowledge and talent across the sciences to build a more fair, sustainable, and prosperous world.”
The Vice-Chancellor also paid tribute to the founding leadership of Prof Michael Kenny and Prof Diane Coyle, and to the benefactor Mr Peter Bennett, whose vision and generosity founded the Bennett Institute—and now the Bennett School.
Prof Michael Kenny, inaugural Head of the Bennett School, outlined the School’s next phase, which will see the integration of the Bennett Institute’s world-class research with new teaching programmes. Alongside the established MPhil in Public Policy, the School will offer a Master’s in Digital Policy, a PhD programme, and a range of executive education opportunities.
He said: “What it means in establishing a school is that we can bring together the research and the engagement work that we’ve been doing into what we think will be a creative and innovative dialogue with the teaching and the training that we will do in-house… we will remain outward facing, seeking to work with and influence policymakers at all levels of government, in the UK and internationally, and shape the minds and the skills of the policymakers of tomorrow.”
Peter Bennett expressed his pride in seeing the new School established and shared his hope that, in the future, all Cambridge undergraduates—regardless of discipline—will receive some education in public policy, which he sees as vital for everyone.
The reception also featured a discussion chaired by Prof Kenny, with Prof Anna Vignoles, Director of the Leverhulme Trust, and Dr Gillian Tett, Provost of Kings College Cambridge. Together, they explored the future challenges and opportunities for public policy research and learning.
Prof Vignoles praised the Bennett for delving into the difficult fundamental questions about governance, trust, and inequality that lie beneath every policy issue. She said the Bennett is “extremely good at generating timely, excellent evidence that can really make a difference.”
Dr Tett placed importance on the School’s work amid what she described as a “polycrisis” of geopolitics, technology, and trust. She said: “We need to actually have a source of hope… we can be a beacon on the world stage for the simple idea that, yes, you can be a rational grown-up leader who wants to make the world better… [we need to teach students] skills with digitization, skills with silo busting, because they need to recognise the world’s changing the whole time.”
Among the 100 guests attending the reception at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, there was a sense of optimism about what the Bennett School represents: a commitment to research, teaching and impact that enable the right kind of growth, fairly shared.
The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Bennett Institute for Public Policy.
