Tufts University, The Fletcher School

Feeding a Growing Market in Technology, Cybersecurity, and Internet Policy

There’s a statistic cited often about The Fletcher School at Tufts University: 95 percent of Fletcher students accept a position within six months of graduating.

While COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the job market for recent graduates, Fletcher graduates are finding employment at private-sector giants, such as Facebook and Twitter. They work in influential public-sector agencies, including the US Department of State and the US Agency for International Development. Fletcher grads also go to the nonprofit world, landing coveted jobs at organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

As The Fletcher School itself is quick to note, it has a global affairs degree option for almost any interest or ambition.

“It is profoundly flexible. The students have a lot of freedom to design what they want to focus on and put together a slate of courses that interests them,” says Josephine Wolff, assistant professor of cybersecurity policy.

Driven by a job market hungry for expertise, the school is actively developing degree options in technology, cybersecurity, internet policy, and related fields. For example, it added an emphasis in technology and international affairs to its popular Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy program. The school also created a Master of Science in Cybersecurity and Public Policy, in collaboration with the Department of Computer Science in the Tufts School of Engineering. The goal is to solidly ground students in technology, to create more capable policy experts.

The need for expertise in technology-related policy, from data security to internet regulation, has exploded in the last five years, as governments and multinational companies worldwide struggle to create rules for a global network that does not respect national boundaries.

To help graduates enter those markets, Fletcher is combining degree programs with an extensive alumni network (the school has more than 70 alumni clubs worldwide) and the opportunity to gain real-world experience through internships. Fletcher students normally participate in roughly 165 different internship programs in more than 50 countries. During the pandemic, the school has funded student research positions that provide new opportunities for students and faculty to collaborate. For example, Wolff had three student researchers last summer, all eager to gain experience.

“Most policy makers you interact with are not going to understand the technology,” she says. “To be effective in this space, you have to be willing to come into those rooms and explain. Fletcher alums are comfortable walking into rooms where they have a unique set of skills and a unique expertise and then trying to find common ground and explain important concepts.”

Career Services
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Contact
fletcher.tufts.edu
[email protected]
617-627-3040