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MPS in Global Development

Training next-generation development practitioners

Our 1-year Master of Professional Studies in Global Development is designed for early and mid-career professionals to take their career to their next level. This program will enhance your practical and technical skills and prepare you for a career in field-based development and policy in low-income and rural communities around the globe. Our graduate students and alumni are at the frontlines of developing solutions to pressing issues — from agriculture and food systems to gender, economics and demographics — on the local and global scale.

Take your development career to the next level

Explore the curriculum, learn about admissions requirements, and apply to the program.

Learn more about the MPS in Global Development
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Collage of student headshots
Meet our current cohort
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MPS field faculty in Global Development
Lecturer Sarah Giroux and graduate student Anthony Poon discuss research
Student handbook

Student research

Learn how our MPS students connect their research interests with a passion to make a difference in the world.

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News

A thank you letter to the Humphrey Fellows
Classes for the 2024 fall semester might have officially started August 26th, but for me, they started on August 12th–the day that most of this year’s Humphrey Fellows arrived in Ithaca. My experience with the Fellows has changed my life; the...
  • Department of Global Development
  • Global Development
Ijeoma Obiedelu headshot

News

RANA Prize winner to support women’s mobility, empowerment in Nigeria
Ijeoma Seraphie Obiedelu, a peacebuilder whose work seeks to innovatively confront gender-based inequalities and violence in Nigeria, earned the 2025 Ronny Adhikarya Niche Award (RANA), the Department of Global Development announced today. The...
  • Department of Global Development
  • Global Development
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News

Peace Corps Humility: Coverdell Fellow Erik Endacott, MPS ‘25
How would bushwhacking the Rockies, wandering across Gambia, and working a Tesla assembly line shift your perception of global development? Meet Erik Endacott, this year’s Peace Corps Coverdell Fellow in the Global Development Master of...
  • Department of Global Development
  • Food
  • Global Development

Upcoming information sessions

Interested in learning more about doing a Master of Professional Studies (MPS) in Global Development at Cornell? Please join one of our informal information sessions, led by the Director of the program, to answer any question you might have about the MPS in Global Development.

Register for an upcoming session:

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Naveen Sridhar, MPS student in Global Development, worked with at the Tata-Cornell Institute in Inida, where he was responsible for monitoring field level implementation of activities. Photo provided.

Alumni spotlights

Are you wondering where a graduate education in Global Development can take you? Meet some of our MPS alumni who have taken lessons learned to advance their careers in every corner of the world.

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Rex Ukaejiofo, MPS ‘20

Science & Technology Policy Fellow, USAID/American Association for the Advancement of Science

student ashraf bhuiyan sitting with computer outside.
Ashraf Hossain Bhuiyan, MPS '19

Assistant vice president, Infrastructure Development Company Limited (Bangladesh)

Ariana Constant
Ariana Constant, MPS '14

Director, Clinton Development Initiative

student michal matejczuk working in field.
Michal Matejczuk, MPS '19

Ph.D. student in Food Science and Technology, Cornell University

Parasto Hamed
Parasto Hamed, MPS '14

Consulting Specialist, Deloitte; Field Coordinator, AgResults Project

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Sameena Nazir, MPS '10

Founder, Potohar Organization for Development Advocacy (Pakistan)

Get to know our director

Play Ed Mabaya at Cornell University

Ed Mabaya is a scholar and a development practitioner with more than two decades of experience working on development, agribusiness value chains and food security issues in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Connect with us

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Ed Mabaya

Research Professor

Department of Global Development

Director, Humphrey Fellowship Program

Department of Global Development

Director, Graduate Field of Global Development

Department of Global Development

Ed Mabaya
Applied Economics and Policy
Food and Agricultural Economics
International and Development Economics and Policy