Today Oxford University is expected to reveal the secrets of a new school of government that will train graduates from all over the world in the "skills and responsibilities of government" to become future world leaders. In this school students will learn how to deal complex issues on the basis of their practical skills and awareness of two or more specific areas required for solving the problem.
Professor Ngaire Woods, academic director of the new school, expressed the idea in his custom essay that they tried to introduce in the curriculum all necessary areas to be learned by good public policy makers for solving 21st century policy problems. "We've got an analytical part of the curriculum and a practical part. We're not trying to train scientists and medics, but we'll be teaching how to be an informed user of scientific advice.
Ngaire Woods: "For example the BSE crisis; how do you manage the scientific advice, the legal advice, the political advice? We've got a module where we've got a zoologist, a lawyer and a political scientist, and we're bringing them together to teach this."
The course will include disciplines starting from the humanities, social sciences and law to science, health, technology, finance. The understanding of different political systems as well as energy and security policy will be required of the students in a new school.
Prof Woods said "It will be good to train [students] to understand other countries, and also [study] with people in other countries. To have global thinking, global understanding, global networking."
First students will be admitted to the school, described by the university's vice-chancellor as "a huge milestone in Oxford's history" in 2012. The number of academics to teach 120 students will amount to 40. The establishment of the school became possible due to a £75m gift from the industrialist Leonard Blavatnik, one of the most generous in the university's 900-year history. Oxford is contributing an additional £26m.
