Policy Has to Work in the World

A policy can look sound on paper and still fail at the point of delivery. At the Johns Hopkins University School of Government & Policy, you’ll study what happens between intention and impact: how institutions work, where they break down, and what allows reform to hold.

On our campus in Washington, D.C., you’ll learn from the debates and public systems shaping how government serves people.

  • Discover the School of Government & Policy

    See how Johns Hopkins is building a new approach to policy education around a simple demand: Ideas must work in practice. Meet the faculty doing that work and see why Washington, D.C., is central to it.

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  • Invest in Your Future

    Graduate study is an investment in the work you want to lead. Start planning for the School’s inaugural Fall 2028 class, and follow admission and financial aid updates as new details are released.

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  • A New Kind of School

    Built from the ground up, the school was designed for the demands of governing today. Test your assumptions against competing evidence and points of view, then learn to build coalitions that can act.

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School of Government & Policy by the Numbers

  • 150 Years of evidence-based inquiry at Johns Hopkins University
  • 2028 The inaugural class arrives
  • 19 Leading scholars and experienced practitioners
“We’re not preparing students to slot into existing institutions as they are. We’re preparing them to build better ones.”
Angela Hawken Vice Dean & Professor
“This new school will draw on our university’s existing strengths and emerging areas of expertise to offer a different approach to the work of government and policy, one that can help rebuild confidence in our institutions and advance new and needed approaches for more effective government.”
Ron Daniels President of Johns Hopkins University
“At a time when public policy problems appear intractable and governments too often falter, this school offers a generational opportunity to build from first principles—advancing intellectual pluralism, forging partnerships for public impact, and applying analytic and empirical rigor to renew governing institutions for the 21st century.”
William G. Howell Dean, School of Government & Policy

The Debate Is Already Underway

At the Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence, you’ll enter public conversations about the questions facing government. You’ll hear scholars and public leaders examine potential solutions alongside practitioners who understand what implementation demands.

Recent convenings have asked whether 21st-century government can still deliver. Others have confronted rapid urbanization or traced the forces behind the rise of the strongman presidency.

Those conversations place competing perspectives in front of you. You’ll test easy answers against evidence and develop your own understanding of what governing institutions must do differently.

Where Evidence Meets the Work

Centers

At Johns Hopkins, you’ll study in an environment where evidence moves beyond campus. The School’s three embedded centers extend Johns Hopkins' reach to more than 1,000 cities worldwide, bringing students and faculty closer to the leaders and communities putting that evidence to work:

  • Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence: Follow city teams worldwide as they use data and AI to improve public services.
  • Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation: See how Hopkins students have joined city halls across the Americas to work on housing and climate resilience.
  • Center for Opportunity and Wealth Data: Explore how trusted wealth data guides policy decisions and public investment.

Initiatives

Beyond the centers, you’ll encounter initiatives built with institutional partners and tested against public problems:

  • Democracy Reform Primer Series: Developed with the University of Chicago’s Center for Effective Government, each primer evaluates a proposed institutional reform and brings research into public debate.
  • Governing the AI Transition: Through research, training, and engagement with government and industry, this School-led initiative develops practical frameworks for governing powerful AI systems.
  • Mayors AI Forum: Established by Bloomberg Philanthropies with Johns Hopkins and supported by GovEx, the forum brings global mayors together to shape how cities use AI.

Your education will unfold alongside this work. You’ll see how ideas change when they meet institutional constraints, then carry those lessons into the public problems you want to solve.

Learn Where Governing Happens

The U.S. Capitol and the White House sit within minutes of our campus on Pennsylvania Avenue. Federal agencies are also nearby, with the city’s wider policy community extending far beyond them. You'll have access to opportunities like:

  • Attending public debates and policy convenings where leaders work through live questions.
  • Connecting across the Johns Hopkins schools and programs based in Washington.

The city gives every question context. You can watch institutions respond under pressure and bring those observations back into the classroom.

Meet the People Building the School

Faculty at the School pair rigorous scholarship with experience inside the institutions they study. Some have shaped policy or led organizations. Others work directly with governments facing unsolved public problems.

Economists work alongside sociologists, legal scholars, and philosophers to engage questions emerging from computer science. You will have direct access to that range of expertise while developing your own approach to public problem-solving.

Their work addresses questions with immediate consequences for public life:

  • How should governments use increasingly powerful AI systems while creating meaningful oversight?
  • What allows cities and national institutions to deliver amid pressure, inequality, or declining public trust?

Faculty will bring students into the process of testing ideas and applying new knowledge. That close involvement will help establish the School’s academic culture from the beginning.

Help Set the Standard

Stay connected with the Johns Hopkins School of Government & Policy for the latest updates on academics, faculty, student opportunities, and important dates. When applications open for the inaugural class in Fall 2028, you’ll have the information you need to take your next step with confidence.

Let’s Start with a Conversation

The admissions team can explain the School’s academic model and the timeline for the inaugural class. Reach out to stay informed as program details and application information are released.