MPhil in Digital Policy

Preference will be given to applicants with 2-5 years of work experience. The MDP will provide students with a thorough intellectual grounding and practical experience in the processes of policy making, as well as an understanding of the range of knowledge and skills they need to be effective in the relevant technical domains.

The University of Cambridge has significant research and teaching strengths in public policy across all Schools and disciplines, particularly in engineering, computer science and social sciences, and is ideally placed to deliver an innovative, multidisciplinary, evidence-based programme aimed at providing an intellectually rigorous education for future leaders in public policy, and to promote interaction between policymakers and academics.

The objective of this course is to provide a firm foundation for understanding the challenges and possibilities posed by digital transformation, aimed at policy professionals in the UK and overseas who have embarked on or are embarking on a policy career. The course is interdisciplinary, spanning political science, economics, law and computer science. The course aims to provide students with the opportunity to develop their powers of critical thinking and the skills and tools to form judgements based on wide ranges of information with varying degrees of uncertainty, and act on them. The course will also train students to understand how others operate and how to work with them to achieve a desired outcome. The course may be studied on a full or part time basis.

The MDP programme will qualify its graduates to: 

• Analyse and deploy different kinds of data and information in an informed and rigorous fashion to develop new insights
• Demonstrate a critical awareness of digital policy issues from a range of different disciplinary perspectives
• Critically analyse policy advice and communicate conclusions clearly
• Critically appraise information from different kinds of experts including technical experts
• Integrate different forms of thinking, including qualitative and quantitative modes of thought in the creation of original research
• Have a conceptual understanding of the implications of complexity, risk and uncertainty in policymaking in a technically complex and rapidly changing area

After completing the course, students can expect to develop:

• communication skills including preparation of specialist policy briefings and reports
• the ability to obtain and synthesise relevant information and communicate these to different audiences
• the ability to autonomously judge sources of data and information
• strategic thinking in decision-making for complex issues
• critical reasoning and independence of mind
• teamwork skills for use in professional environments
• the ability to evaluate the quality and importance of the arguments of a range of different policy experts and analysts

Teaching and learning will involve:

• Lectures by professors and policy professionals who have recognised expertise
• Personal study and exploration of material
• Individual supervisions
• Masterclasses/seminars delivered by external speakers with specialist experience or knowledge
• Working with peers in small groups
• Materials provided online through Moodle and the University Library

Learn how to apply for the MPhil in Digital Policy in this session with Prof Diane Coyle, Programme Director, recorded on 4 November during the University of Cambridge’s Virtual Postgraduate Open Days 2025.

If you have any additional questions and to apply, please take a look at the postgraduate admissions MDP page, or you may email the Course Coordinator.