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Think your life’s impact is pigeonholed by the bachelor’s degree you chose as a young adult? Think again. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) believes your unique POV could be just what the world needs to tackle its biggest challenges. In online classrooms dedicated to the MicroMasters® in Data, Economics, and Design of Policy (DEDP), it’s your diverse experiences, and not the name of your degree, that are seen as essential pieces in solving the puzzle of global change.
For example, Sofia Martinez Galvez from Spain pivoted from quantum cryptography to educational reform in sub-Saharan Africa. Today, she’s the co-founder of a nonprofit that partners with schools and Ministries of Education in Sub-Saharan Africa to bring evidence-based teaching practices into every classroom. Saeed Miganeh from Somaliland, with a background in business administration and years at the United Nations, upskilled to deepen his impact on economic and poverty alleviation policies in Africa. Meanwhile, Mlen-Too Wesley, a software developer and entrepreneur, deepened his understanding of economic incentives and gained analytical tools and frameworks to assess and address issues in the US and Liberia.
These are people like you, driven by a passion to make change happen. The only difference is that they’re already armed with insights gained from a curriculum designed by Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee.
The MicroMasters® in DEDP was designed based on the prize-winning work of these MIT economists. The pair took a key feature of laboratory science — randomised control trials — and applied it to development economics. From boosting immunisation rates in India and increased school attendance in Kenya, this evidence-based approach has fundamentally changed how anti-poverty programmes are designed and evaluated around the world.
The best part? Neither formal prerequisites nor out-of-reach tuition fees are required. Each online course costs between US$250 and US$1,000, based on your income. DEDP even offers a limited number of US$100 course price coupons to learners with an annual income of less than US$10,000, randomly selected in each term through a lottery system.
Galvez was a beneficiary of the lottery in 2021. It significantly decreased the cost of her courses, reducing the time she needed to complete the credential and apply to the Master’s in DEDP. “Without the MicroMasters paving the way, applying to MIT or any similar institution would have been unthinkable for us,” she said. “Initially, my aim in taking the online courses wasn’t to pursue the residential programme; it was only after witnessing my own progress that I realised the possibility wasn’t so distant after all. This sentiment resonates with many in our cohort, which is truly humbling.”
There’s another feature that makes the MicroMasters® in DEDP more accessible than other programmes: it’s online. Anyone with computer and internet access can take part and get the same challenge as residential MIT classes. No matter your schedule, you will progress as it’s designed to let you set the pace while benefiting from structured, instructor-led courses and interactive forums.
With its shorter duration, affordability, and flexibility, the MicroMasters® in DEDP sets out to equip more people from around the world to further expand the reach of a new way forward for poverty alleviation.
“It is more important now than ever to ensure that the next generation of leaders understand how best to use data to inform decisions, especially when it comes to public policy,” said Duflo.
“We are preparing our students to succeed in future leadership positions in government, NGOs, and the private sector — and, hopefully, to help shift their institutional cultures toward a more data-driven approach to policy.”
This pioneering initiative — jointly led by MIT’s Department of Economics, the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), and MIT Open Learning — blends theory with practical application in economics, policy design, and data analysis. It fuses advanced economic and mathematical principles with modern policy tools, covering core topics like probability, statistics, and randomised evaluations to determine the effectiveness of social programmes.
Electives are organised into two distinct tracks: International Development and Public Policy. The former focuses on issues plaguing low- and middle-income countries experiencing massive and persistent poverty. The latter zooms in on the actions adopted by governments for both local issues and those that transcend geographic boundaries.
The MicroMasters® in DEDP ensures that all candidates — regardless of their aspirations or academic backgrounds — possess the foundational knowledge and practical skills necessary for the rigours of advanced study. Graduates can apply to the Master’s in DEDP at MIT or one of 19 pathway universities worldwide that either recognise the MicroMasters in DEDP credential in admissions or offer academic credit for the credential as part of an accelerated graduate programme.
Should you choose the master’s in DEDP, you need to show successful completion of the MicroMasters program online. While admission is competitive, there is no need to furnish results of other standardised tests such as the GRE or GMAT. With this unique approach to admissions, students of all backgrounds like Miganeh, who hold degrees in non-related fields, can earn a master’s degree from MIT.
“Pursuing this master’s degree at MIT, where modern economics education has been reinvented and is home to faculty including Nobel laureates and other distinguished professors and scholars, was an enriching lifetime experience, personally and professionally,” Miganeh said.
Source: Lucy Nguyen, J-PAL Global
Led by Nobel laureates and MacArthur Fellows, the DEDP programmes will deepen your analytical and practical skills, crucial for anyone seeking a data-driven approach to addressing global challenges like poverty and inequality.
The programme’s intensive mathematics and statistics courses sparked Wesley’s interest in artificial intelligence, particularly in machine learning and natural language processing. He aims to employ these advanced tools to analyse national development plans, comparing them across different times and countries to identify recurring themes and objectives. He looks forward to bringing these new skills in producing and understanding rigorous evidence back to Liberia once he graduates. Specifically, he hopes to lead a data-centric organisation dedicated to enhancing the well-being of communities in both Liberia and the US.
Wesley credits his world-changing aspirations to a world-class learning environment that values his growth. “The fourth time taking Data Analysis [during my MicroMasters], I began to understand it. I appreciate that MIT did not care that I did poorly on my first try. They cared that over time, I understood the material,” he reflected.
“Thanks to MIT, I have the knowledge and tools to tackle real-world challenges that traditional economic models often overlook, ” Wesley added.
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