Harvard Kennedy School

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The John F. Kennedy School of Government, commonly called the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), is the graduate school of public policy of Harvard University, a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.

The Harvard Kennedy School offers master's degrees in public policy, public administration, and international development, four doctoral degrees, and various executive education programs. It conducts research in subjects relating to politics, government, international affairs, and economics. Template:As of the Harvard Kennedy School has an endowment of $1.7 billion.[1] It is a member of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA), a global consortium of schools that trains leaders in international affairs.[2]

The primary campus of the Harvard Kennedy School is on John F. Kennedy Street in Cambridge. The main buildings overlook the Charles River and are southwest of Harvard Yard and Harvard Square, on the site of a former MBTA Red Line train yard. The School is adjacent to the public riverfront John F. Kennedy Memorial Park.

The Harvard Kennedy School alumni include 21 heads of state or government from around the world. Alumni also include cabinet officials, military leaders, heads of central banks, and legislators.

History

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Founding

The Harvard Kennedy School was founded as the Harvard Graduate School of Public Administration in 1936 with a $2 million gift (equivalent to roughly $43 million as of 2023) from Lucius Littauer, an 1878 Harvard College alumnus, businessman, former U.S. Congressman, and the first coach of the Harvard Crimson football team.[3]

The Harvard Kennedy School's shield was designed to express the national purpose of the school and was modeled after the U.S. shield.[4] The School drew its initial faculty from Harvard's existing government and economics departments, and welcomed its first students in 1937.

The School's original home was in the Littauer Center, north of Harvard Yard, which is now home to Harvard University's Economics Department. The first students at the Graduate School were called Littauer Fellows, participating in a one-year course listing which later developed into the school's mid-career Master in Public Administration program.[5] In the 1960s, the School began to develop its current public policy degree and course curriculum associated with its Master in Public Policy program.

Renaming and move

In 1966, three years following the assassination of U.S. president and 1940 Harvard College alumnus John F. Kennedy, the school was renamed in his honor.Template:Refn

In 1966, concurrent with the school's renaming,[6] the Harvard Institute of Politics was created with Neustadt as its founding director.[7] The Harvard Institute of Politics has been housed on the school campus since 1978, and today sponsors and hosts a series of programs, speeches and study groups for Harvard undergraduates and graduate students. Along with major Harvard Kennedy School events, the Institute of Politics holds the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum, named in honor of John F. Kennedy Jr., in Harvard Kennedy School's Littauer Building.Template:Citation needed

By 1978, the faculty, including presidential scholar and adviser Richard Neustadt, a foreign policy scholar and later dean of the School, Graham Allison, Richard Zeckhauser, and others consolidated the school's programs and research centers at the present Harvard Kennedy School campus. The first new building opened on the southern half of the former Eliot Shops site in October 1978.[8] Under the terms of Littauer's original grant, the current campus also features a building called Littauer.Template:Citation needed

Rebranding and campus expansion

In late 2007, the Kennedy School of Government announced that while its official name was not being altered, it was rebranding itself as Harvard Kennedy School effective Fall 2008.[9] The goal was to make clearer the school's connection with Harvard.[10] It was also thought that the new branding would reduce confusion with other entities named after Kennedy, including the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and the Kennedy Library in Boston.[9] The rebranding had the support of John F. Kennedy's brother, U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and Caroline Kennedy, the former president's daughter.[9]

In 2012, the Harvard Kennedy School announced a $500 million fundraising campaign, $120 million of which was to be used to significantly expand the Harvard Kennedy School campus, adding 91,000 square feet of space including six new classrooms, a new kitchen, and dining facility, offices and meeting spaces, a new student lounge and study space, more collaboration and active learning spaces, and a redesigned central courtyard. Groundbreaking commenced on May 7, 2015, and the project was completed in late 2017. The new Harvard Kennedy School campus opened in December 2017.[11][12]

From 2004 to 2015, the Harvard Kennedy School's dean was David T. Ellwood, a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services official in the Bill Clinton administration.[13]

In 2015, Douglas Elmendorf, a former director of the U.S. Congressional Budget Office, was named both dean of the Harvard Kennedy School and the school's Don K. Price Professor of Public Policy.[14] Elmendorf announced in September 2023 that he would step down as dean at the end of the academic year 2023/2024.[15]

In July 2024, Jeremy M. Weinstein, a political scientist at Stanford University and former chief of staff to the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, succeeded Elmendorf as dean.[16][17] Template:Wide image

Academics

Degrees

The Harvard Kennedy School offers four master's degree programs.[18] The two-year Master in Public Policy (MPP) program focuses on policy analysis, economics, management, ethics, statistics and negotiations in the public sector.[19] There are three separate Master in Public Administration (MPA) programs: a one-year Mid-Career Program (MC/MPA) intended for professionals who are more than seven years removed from their college graduation; a two-year MPA program intended for professionals who have an additional graduate degree and are more recently out of school; and a two-year international development track (MPA/ID) focused on development studies with a strong emphasis on economics and quantitative analysis.

Members of the mid-career MPA class also include Mason Fellows, who are public and private executives from developing countries. Mason Fellows typically constitute about 50 percent of the incoming class of Mid-Career MPA candidates. The Mason cohort is the most diverse at Harvard in terms of nationalities and ethnicities represented. It is named after Edward Sagendorph Mason, the former Harvard professor who, from 1947 to 1958, was dean of Harvard's Graduate School of Public Administration, now known as Harvard Kennedy School.

In addition to the master's programs, the Harvard Kennedy School administers three doctoral programs.[20] Ph.D. degrees are awarded in public policy, in social policy in conjunction with Harvard's departments of government and sociology, and in health policy in conjunction with FAS and the Harvard School of Public Health.

Joint and concurrent degrees

The Harvard Kennedy School has a number of joint and concurrent degree programs within Harvard and with other leading universities, which allow students to receive multiple degrees in a reduced period of time. Joint and current students spend at least one year in residence in Cambridge taking courses. The Harvard Kennedy School joint degree programs are run with the Harvard Business School, the Harvard Law School, and the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and concurrent programs are offered with the Harvard Divinity School and the Harvard Medical School.

Beyond Harvard, the Harvard Kennedy School has concurrent degree arrangements with other law, business, and medical schools, including the Stanford Graduate School of Business; the MIT Sloan School of Management; the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College; The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania; the Columbia Law School; the Duke University School of Law; the Georgetown University Law Center; the New York University School of Law, the Northwestern University School of Law; the Stanford Law School; the University of California, Berkeley School of Law; the University of Michigan Law School; the University of Pennsylvania Law School; the Yale Law School; and the UCSF School of Medicine.[21]

Abroad, the Harvard Kennedy School offers a dual degree with the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.[22][23]

HKS courses

The Harvard Kennedy School maintains six academic divisions each headed by a faculty chair. In addition to offerings in the Harvard Kennedy School course listing, students are eligible to cross-register for courses at the other graduate and professional schools at Harvard and at MIT Sloan School of Management, Fletcher School at Tufts University, and the MIT School of Architecture and Planning. MPP coursework is focused on one of five areas, called a Policy Area of Concentration (PAC),[24] and includes a year-long research seminar in their second year, which includes a master's thesis called a Policy Analysis Exercise.[25][26]

International collaboration

The university is an active member of the University of the Arctic.[27] UArctic is an international cooperative network based in the Circumpolar Arctic region, consisting of more than 200 universities, colleges, and other organizations with an interest in promoting education and research in the Arctic region.[28]

Rankings

The Harvard Kennedy School has routinely ranked as the best, or among the best, of the world's public policy graduate schools. U.S. News & World Report ranks it the best graduate school for social policy, the best for health policy, and second best for public policy analysis.[29] In 2015 rankings, the Harvard Kennedy School is ranked first in the subcategory of health policy and second in the category of public policy analysis and social policy.[30][31]

The Harvard Kennedy School's foreign affairs programs have consistently ranked at the top or near the top of Foreign Policy magazine's Inside the Ivory Tower survey, which lists the world's top twenty academic international relations programs at the undergraduate, Master's, and Ph.D. levels.[32] In 2012, for example, the survey ranked the Harvard Kennedy School first overall for doctoral and undergraduate programs and third overall in the Master's category.[33]

Student organizations

File:KSG 1996 women.png
The Harvard Kennedy School's women's rowing team at Weld Boathouse in the Head of the Charles Regatta rowing race on Charles River in 2006

The Harvard Kennedy School maintains a range of student activities, including interest-driven student caucuses, Kennedy School Student Government, known as KSSG, student-edited policy journals, including Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy, Kennedy School Review,[34] the Journal of Middle Eastern Politics and Policy,[35] a student newspaper, The Citizen, and a number of student athletic groups.

Students can join the Harvard Graduate Council, which is the centralized student government for the twelve graduate and professional schools of Harvard University. The Harvard Graduate Council is responsible for advocating student concerns to central administrators, including the president of Harvard University, provost, deans of students, and deans for the nearly 15,000 graduate and professional students across the twelve schools, organizing large university-wide initiatives and events, administering and providing funding for university-wide student groups,[36][37] and representing the Harvard graduate student population to other universities and external organizations.[38] Harvard Graduate Council is known for spearheading the "One Harvard" movement, which aims to bring all of Harvard's graduate schools together through closer collaboration and social interaction.[39]

Centers

The Harvard Kennedy School is home to 14 centers, including:[40][12]

The majority of centers offer research and academic fellowships through which fellows can engage in research projects, lead study groups into specific topics and share their experiences with industry and government with the student body.

Controversies

Under Dean Elmendorf, the school has tried to focus its engagement across the political spectrum, which has caused controversy at times. The school came under criticism for offering a fellowship to Chelsea Manning on September 13, 2017.[56][57] It then publicly rescinded the offer on September 15, 2017, after CIA director Mike Pompeo canceled a speaking engagement at Harvard and sent a letter condemning the university for awarding the fellowship.[57][58]

An investigative report in 2021 by student group Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard found that many of the centers' climate initiatives were funded in part by fossil fuel companies, and that some of the centers had allegedly taken several steps to cover up that fact.[59][60]

The Kennedy School's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy in 2022 invited Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, a leading global human rights organizations, to join it as a senior fellow. The Kennedy School eventually rescinded the invitation to Roth because Human Rights Watch's 2021 investigation of Israel's treatment of Palestinians concluded that it met the threshold for the "crime of apartheid".[61] After condemnation by faculty, students, the American Civil Liberties Union and others, the dean of the school reversed this decision.[62]

Awards

The Robert F. Kennedy Award for Excellence in Public Service is awarded to "a graduating student whose commitment, activities, and contributions to public service are extraordinary". Several other awards are also awarded on Class Day annually at the end of May.[63]

Notable alumni

Template:See also The Harvard Kennedy School has over 63,000 alumni, many of whom have gone on to notable careers around the world in government, business, public policy, and other fields. Its alumni include 20 heads of state and dozens of leaders of government department and agencies, non-profit public policy organizations, the military, thought leadership and advocacy, academia, and other fields:[64]

Government and politics

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See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 2019 Harvard financial report.
  2. ↑ Member Directory. Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs(March 11, 2016). Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  3. ↑ Harvard Kennedy School – History. Hks.harvard.edu. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  4. ↑ Sequence 14248 (Page 283): Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Harvard University Library PDS. pds.lib.harvard.edu. Retrieved January 22, 2016.
  5. ↑ Littauer School Serves as Center for Social Sciences | News | The Harvard Crimson. www.thecrimson.com. Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  6. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named ap-092066
  7. ↑ Kumar, Martha Joynt. "Richard Elliott Neustadt, 1919–2003: a tribute," Presidential Studies Quarterly, March 1, 2004, pg. 1
  8. ↑ Something old, something new, something borrowed. Boston Globe(October 15, 1978). Template:Open access
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Kennedy School to rebrand itself. The Patriot Ledger(December 6, 2007).
  10. ↑ Kennedy School Web site asks what you can do(13 December 2007).
  11. ↑ Kennedy School Completes Campus Renovations(8 December 2017). Retrieved January 9, 2019.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "HKS Campus Map & Directory" Template:Webarchive, Harvard Kennedy School (Namesakes on the map include David Rubenstein, Leslie Wexner, Alfred Taubman, Lucius Nathan Littauer, Robert A. Belfer, Batia & Idan Ofer, Malcolm H. Wiener, Joan Shorenstein, etc.)
  13. ↑ Harvard Kennedy School – David Ellwood. Harvard Kennedy School(July 1, 2004). Retrieved November 4, 2015.
  14. ↑ Elmendorf to lead Kennedy School(June 11, 2015). Retrieved November 4, 2015.
  15. ↑ Douglas Elmendorf to step down as dean of Harvard Kennedy School(September 7, 2023)..
  16. ↑ Jeremy Weinstein Will Serve as Next Harvard Kennedy School Dean, Garber Confirms(April 30, 2024).
  17. ↑ Jeremy M. Weinstein named dean of Harvard Kennedy School(April 29, 2024).
  18. ↑ Harvard Kennedy School – Office of Admissions. Hks.harvard.edu. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  19. ↑ Master in Public Policy | Harvard Kennedy School. www.hks.harvard.edu. Retrieved October 2, 2017.
  20. ↑ Harvard Kennedy School – Doctoral Programs. Hks.harvard.edu. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
  21. ↑ Harvard Kennedy School – Joint & Concurrent Degrees. Hks.harvard.edu. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  22. ↑ Dual Master with Harvard Kennedy School | IHEID. www.graduateinstitute.ch. Retrieved 2023-08-28.
  23. ↑ Dual Degree. www.hks.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2023-08-28.
  24. ↑ Curriculum.
  25. ↑ HKS Course Listing. Hks.harvard.edu. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  26. ↑ Policy Analysis Exercise.
  27. ↑ Members. UArctic. Retrieved 2025-03-06.
  28. ↑ About Us. UArctic - University of the Arctic. Retrieved 2025-03-06.
  29. ↑ U.S. News and World Report re-issues grad school rankings – The Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. fordschool.umich.edu.
  30. ↑ Harvard University | Best Public Affairs School | US News. Retrieved 2016-05-04.
  31. ↑ Rankings – Public Affairs – Graduate Schools – Education – US News. Retrieved 2011-05-25.
  32. ↑ Ivory Tower. Foreign Policy(Jan–Feb 2012). Retrieved February 6, 2012.
  33. ↑ TRIP Around the World: Teaching, Research, and Policy Views of International Relations Faculty in 20 Countries. Institute for the Theory and Practice of International Relations. College of William & Mary. Retrieved February 6, 2012.
  34. ↑ Kennedy School Review. Kennedy School Review.
  35. ↑ Journal of Middle Eastern Politics and Policy. Journal of Middle Eastern Politics and Policy.
  36. ↑ USG « Harvard Graduate Student Government. Hgc.harvard.edu. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  37. ↑ University-Wide Groups Approved | News | The Harvard Crimson, Khanna, Saira. The Crimson. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  38. ↑ Harvard at a Glance | Harvard University. Harvard.edu. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  39. ↑ There's only one Harvard. harvard.edu(September 10, 2013). Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  40. ↑ Harvard Kennedy School – Centers. Hks.harvard.edu. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  41. ↑ Harvard – Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. Ash.harvard.edu. Retrieved May 25, 2023.
  42. ↑ Harvard – Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Belfercenter.org. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  43. ↑ Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University. Bloomberg Center for Cities(2023-03-21). Retrieved 2025-01-04.
  44. ↑ Carr Center for Human Rights Policy | John F. Kennedy School of Government | Harvard University. Hks.harvard.edu. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  45. ↑ Harvard Kennedy School – Center for International Development, Harvard Kennedy School.
  46. ↑ Center for Public Leadership – Harvard Kennedy School. Hks.harvard.edu. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  47. ↑ Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics : Home. Ethics.harvard.edu. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  48. ↑ Harvard University Institute of Politics. Iop.harvard.edu(April 29, 2014). Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  49. ↑ Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies – Home Page. Jchs.harvard.edu. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  50. ↑ Shorenstein Center home page. Shorensteincenter.org(June 17, 2014). Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  51. ↑ Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government. Hks.harvard.edu. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  52. ↑ Rappaport Institute of Greater Boston. Hks.harvard.edu. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  53. ↑ The Taubman Center. Hks.harvard.edu(April 3, 2014). Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  54. ↑ Harvard Kennedy School – Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy. Hks.harvard.edu. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  55. ↑ Women and Public Policy Program. Hks.harvard.edu. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  56. ↑ Sean Spicer and Chelsea Manning Join Harvard as Visiting Fellows. The New York Times(2017-09-13). Retrieved 2020-03-04.
  57. ↑ 57.0 57.1 With Chelsea Manning Invitation, Harvard Got a Discussion It Didn't Want. The New York Times(2017-09-15). Retrieved 2020-03-04.
  58. ↑ Harvard Disinvites Chelsea Manning, and the Feeling Is Mutual. The New York Times(2017-09-14). Retrieved 2020-03-04.
  59. ↑ Enacted Inertia: Australian Fossil Fuel Incumbents' Strategies to Undermine Challengers. Springer International Publishing.
  60. ↑ Beyond the Endowment, Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard.
  61. ↑ The Nation, 5 Jan. 2023 "Why the Godfather of Human Rights Is Not Welcome at Harvard: Kenneth Roth, Who Ran Human Rights Watch for 29 Years, Was Denied a Fellowship at The Kennedy School. The Reason? Israel"
  62. ↑ Harvard reverses decision on role for Israel critic after outcry. The Guardian(20 Jan 2023). Retrieved 13 February 2023.
  63. ↑ Class Day Awards. Harvard Kennedy School(May 2020). Retrieved 13 August 2022.
  64. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Facts
  65. ↑ Rizwan new secretary maritime affairs. Nation.com.pk(2 April 2019). Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  66. ↑ Dailytimes | Sartaj unveils FATA reforms package. dailytimes.com.pk(25 August 2016). Retrieved 28 August 2016.
  67. ↑ Tariq Bajwa Appointed As the New SBP Governor. www.propakistani.pk(July 7, 2017).
  68. ↑ Nominations Before the Senate Armed Services Committee, First Session, 111th Congress. GPO. Retrieved December 25, 2014.
  69. ↑ Paper Crane #16. Paper Crane Project. Retrieved December 25, 2014.
  70. ↑ Cabinet Appointments Mr TEO Chee Hean. Singapore Cabinet Office. Retrieved December 11, 2014.
  71. ↑ Ajay Narayan Jha – Executive Record Sheet. Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
  72. ↑ Soldier On. Harvard Business School(October 11, 2023). Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  73. ↑ Gradation list of Uttar Pradesh Cadre IAS officers – 2016. Department of Appointment and Personnel, Government of Uttar Pradesh. Retrieved August 15, 2017.
  74. ↑ Rajive Kumar – Executive Record Sheet. Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  75. ↑ Sanjay Mitra – Executive Sheet. Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India. Retrieved January 10, 2018.
  76. ↑ Sanjay Mitra Takes Over as the New Defence Secretary. Press Information Bureau of India(May 25, 2017). Retrieved January 10, 2018.
  77. ↑ Former telecom regulator Nripendra Misra appointed principal secretary to Narendra Modi. The Economic Times(27 May 2014). Retrieved 7 August 2018.
  78. ↑ Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited – Official Website. www.sngpl.com.pk.
  79. ↑ Paul A. Volcker. Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Retrieved 2018-09-16.
  80. ↑ Anthony wins a sixth term as a Corporation Commissioner. Oklahoman.com(2018-11-07). Retrieved 2020-03-04.
  81. ↑ charles 'charley' a. murphy's biography. Project Vote Smart. Retrieved February 2, 2013.
  82. ↑ "Houston native takes over Railroad Commission", Associated Press in Houston Chronicle, February 28, 2012.
  83. ↑ Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant. The Belgian Monarchy. Retrieved 2024-11-18.
  84. ↑ Honoree committed to preventing strokes around the globe. www.heart.org. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  85. ↑ Justin Fox. CUNY TV.
  86. ↑ Department of Homeland Security Leadership structure. Retrieved February 24, 2010.
  87. ↑ Uncharted Waters. Harvard Kennedy School. Retrieved December 25, 2014.
  88. ↑ President Obama Announces his Intent to Nominate Peter V. Neffenger to lead the Transportation Security Administration(April 28, 2015).
  89. ↑ Susan Gardner, Programme, United Nations Environment. UNEP(2018-12-03). Retrieved 2023-12-15.
  90. ↑ Harvard Kennedy School, Contact: Esten Perez. Hks.harvard.edu(July 10, 2012). Retrieved July 16, 2014.

References

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