DE · Master's
Hertie School
Master of Data Science for Public Policy
Hertie School
Deadline detail: Applications open in the autumn and are assessed in rounds through the spring; the early rounds carry the scholarship budget, so apply in the first one you are ready for
Course Overview
The Hertie School's Master of Data Science for Public Policy exists because the two skill sets it joins are almost never held by the same person. Governments and international organisations now sit on enormous administrative datasets and have almost no one who can both extract something meaningful from them and understand what a policy instrument can actually do. The MDS trains for that intersection: statistics and probability, machine learning, causal inference and impact evaluation, data engineering and reproducible workflows, network and text analysis, and geospatial methods — taught alongside the Hertie core in public policy, governance, economics and public management.
Hertie is a private graduate school of governance in central Berlin, taught entirely in English, with a cohort that is deliberately international and a faculty drawn from political science, economics, statistics and computer science. Its location matters practically: the German federal ministries, the Bundestag, the think tanks, the foundations and a dense cluster of international organisations are all within walking distance, and the school's professional network runs directly into them. The degree includes a professional year element and a capstone project done with an external client, which is where most students find the organisation that hires them.
This is a strong fit for a specific kind of Sri Lankan applicant: someone in or heading towards government, central banking, development or the research and advocacy sector who can already handle data or wants to learn to. Sri Lanka's public sector has real analytical capacity gaps at exactly this level — the Department of Census and Statistics, the Central Bank's research and statistics functions, the Ministry of Finance's fiscal analysis, the health and education ministries' administrative data, and the growing open-data and public-finance transparency community in Colombo. The fee is far below a comparable US or UK policy-plus-data master's, Berlin is affordable by Western European standards, and Germany's 18-month post-study job-seeking permit is the most generous in continental Europe. Be aware that Hertie is a private institution and therefore does charge tuition, unlike Germany's public universities — the compensating factor is a large scholarship budget.
Entry Requirements
Academic
- check_circle A completed Bachelor's degree in any discipline — economics, political science, statistics, mathematics, computer science, engineering, sociology and public administration are the most common, and the cohort is deliberately mixed.
- check_circle Quantitative preparation is assessed carefully: prior coursework in statistics, mathematics or econometrics, or demonstrable experience working with data, is expected. Applicants with no numerate background are the ones who struggle.
- check_circle Some prior exposure to programming — R, Python or Stata — is strongly advantageous; Hertie runs preparatory material but does not start from zero.
- check_circle Sri Lankan applicants from economics, statistics and mathematics at Colombo, Peradeniya, Sri Jayewardenepura and Kelaniya, from engineering or computer science at Moratuwa, or from professional backgrounds at the Central Bank, the Department of Census and Statistics or a Colombo policy institute, are the natural profiles.
- check_circle A statement of purpose, CV, two references and transcripts. GRE or GMAT is optional at Hertie but a strong quantitative GRE score can be used to evidence readiness where your degree does not.
- check_circle Work experience is not required but is common and valued; a substantial minority of the cohort comes with public-sector or NGO experience.
- check_circle Shortlisted candidates are interviewed, usually online for applicants based overseas.
- check_circle A German national study visa is required, applied for at the German Embassy in Colombo, with proof of funds typically shown through a blocked account at the threshold set annually in German law — verify the current figure and open the account early.
English Proficiency
- check_circle IELTS Academic: 7.0 Overall is the usual Hertie requirement.
- check_circle TOEFL iBT: 100 Overall.
- check_circle Cambridge C1 Advanced or C2 Proficiency is accepted.
- check_circle Hertie waives the test for applicants who completed a prior degree taught and examined entirely in English — Sri Lankan applicants from English-medium degrees should submit a Medium of Instruction letter and obtain confirmation from admissions in writing.
- check_circle The entire programme is taught in English and German is not required for admission or for graduation.
- check_circle German at A2-B1 substantially widens the post-study job market, particularly for the German federal ministries, foundations and think tanks that make up a large part of Hertie's placement base. Hertie and Berlin's Volkshochschulen both offer courses and taking one from the first semester is worth the time.
Estimated Cost of Study
| Expense Category | Amount (€) | Approx. LKR |
|---|---|---|
| Tuition Fee (per year) | €16,250 | Rs. 5,606,250 |
| Living Expenses in Berlin (per year) | €12,000 | Rs. 4,140,000 |
| Health Insurance & Residence Permit | €1,400 | Rs. 483,000 |
| Visa, Blocked Account Fees & Airfare | €1,100 | Rs. 379,500 |
| Laptop, Books & Settling In | €1,200 | Rs. 414,000 |
| Total Year 1 Investment | €31,950 | Rs. 11,022,750 |
*LKR conversion based on current bank rates. Subject to change.
Career Outcomes & PR
Germany grants graduates of a German higher education institution an 18-month residence permit to look for qualified employment, converting to a work permit or EU Blue Card on a qualifying offer and eventually to permanent residence. MDS graduates work as policy data scientists, impact evaluation and monitoring specialists, quantitative researchers and analytics leads — at the OECD, World Bank, UN agencies, the EU institutions and the European Central Bank, at the German federal ministries and statistical offices, at the major foundations and think tanks (Bertelsmann, Mercator, DIW, WZB, SWP), at international NGOs, in political and civic technology, and in the public-sector and social-impact practices of the consultancies. Some move into the private sector's data science market, where the causal inference and evaluation training is genuinely differentiating. For Sri Lankan returnees the fit is direct: the Central Bank of Sri Lanka's research and statistics departments, the Department of Census and Statistics, the Ministry of Finance, the Presidential Secretariat's policy units, the Institute of Policy Studies, Verité Research, Advocata and the Colombo policy institutes, and the World Bank, ADB, UNDP and UNICEF country offices which all run evidence and evaluation programmes.
Related Programs
MSc in Computational Sciences
Free University of Berlin
MSc Computer Science
Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin)
MSc Data Science
University of Hamburg
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