This first year as the Bennett School of Public Policy has laid strong foundations for the future.
Foreword
The Bennett School builds on the achievements of the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, established in 2018 with Prof Michael Kenny as inaugural director and Prof Diane Coyle as the endowed Bennett Chair of Public Policy.
Throughout, we have been fortunate to benefit from the generous and sustained support of the Peter Bennett Foundation, and the University of Cambridge, without which none of this would have been possible.
The Bennett School is committed to interdisciplinary research, teaching and policy engagement. We aim to address the greatest public policy challenges of our time, drawing on the strengths of the University of Cambridge in science and technology as well as the social sciences and arts and humanities.
This first year has laid strong foundations for the future. Alongside teaching the highly acclaimed MPhil in Public Policy since October 2025, and preparing to launch the new MPhil in Digital Policy in October 2026, we have expanded our academic community of researchers and University Teaching Officers, built a talented Professional Services team to support the School’s continued growth, and moved to The Mond Building in the centre of the city. We have also welcomed a growing number of affiliates, including a new Advisory Board, to bring even more policy thinking and experience into our intellectual community.
Looking ahead, we will launch a new PhD programme in October 2027 and work is underway to set up a dedicated PhD scholarship fund. We will continue to respond in our research and engagement to new policy challenges, while deepening our global partnerships and contributing to the wider climate of ideas. We are building a closer relationship with our alumni network to support
their careers and to integrate their experiences into our teaching and research.
Prof Michael Kenny
Head of the Bennett School of Public Policy