Master of Development Policy

KDI School's Master of Development Policy is the flagship programme of the Korea Development Institute School of Public Policy and Management — Korea's premier postgraduate institution for public policy and the academic arm of KDI, the government think tank that authored the Korean Economic Miracle blueprint. The 1-2 year MDP is taught 100% in English by Korean and international faculty (including former World Bank, UN, and OECD economists), and is specifically designed for early-to-mid career public-sector applicants from developing countries. The curriculum is unique: it centres Korea's own development trajectory (1960s-1990s) as a case study — how a low-income country with no natural resources became a high-income OECD member in two generations — and applies that framework to current development challenges in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Sri Lankan applicants are particularly well-served by KDI School. Sri Lanka is a KOICA priority country (Korea's development cooperation agency), KDI School's tuition is FULLY WAIVED for international applicants under the KDI School Scholarship, monthly stipend of KRW 800,000 covers living costs, and the academic content directly maps to Sri Lanka's own development challenges (post-conflict reconstruction, debt sustainability, manufacturing-led growth, the textile / electronics sector path that Korea pioneered and MAS / Brandix followed). Sri Lankan returnees route into senior research economist / policy analyst positions at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Research Department, the Ministry of Finance / Planning, the Department of National Planning, the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS), the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA), the UN Country Team in Colombo (UNDP, UNICEF), the ADB Colombo Office, and into the upper public service (Senior Assistant Secretary / Director cadres). KDI alumni include several current Sri Lankan ministerial advisors.