We are Yellow Ribbon and Active Duty Eligible School. Many of our students and our Dean have served in the U.S. military and we are delighted to have men and women like you join our program.

About Us

We’ve reinvented the Master of Public Policy, creating a new program that makes the most of the realities and possibilities of a complex, fluid world. We’ve focused on how leadership works, why context matters in decision making, and what action leads to tangible results. It’s essential for anyone who wants to lead more competitive, resilient, and fair societies. We are a unique program:

• Leadership is in our name - and our mission. We focus on how leadership works and what actions lead to tangible results. That's why the Batten experience offers a more extensive skill set.
• We’re small by design, with a wide intersection of talents. Deliberately small in size, both our faculty and student body have been carefully cultivated, resulting in an exceptionally wide intersection of talents. 

The traditional MPP program takes two years to complete and attracts students from a variety of majors and with a wealth of work experience. We also offer five dual degree programs in partnership with UVa's top-rated professional schools: 

• MPP/JD (Law)
• MPP/MBA (Business)
• MPP/PhD (Education)
• MPP/MPH (Public Health)
• MPP/MUEP (Urban and Environmental Planning) 

Hear Directly from Our Veterans

Want to hear why former military personnel joined Batten? Read about James Cathro, U.S. Naval Academy graduate and Navy Officer or watch a video featuring Hutch Parker, Officer in the U.S. Marine Corp and MPP/MBA dual degree candidate. Ask us to put you in touch with them or other servicemen at Batten. 

Our Centers

Students are encouraged to develop their socialized interests through Policy Centers and 18+ electives at Batten and other UVA's top-rated schools.

Our Centers reflect the the core research distinctions of our faculty’s expertise and our emphasis on training policy leaders. The Center for Leadership and Simulation is very unique. It applies centuries old methods of simulation and game based training in the military onto the field of public policy and leadership.

• Center on Education Policy and Workforce Competiveness
• Center for Health Policy
• Center for Leadership Simulation and Gaming
• Global Policy Center
• social entrepreneurship @ U.Va

Message from Our Dean Stam

“Leadership and team-building skills have an extraordinary multiplier effect on policy and organizational outcomes. They often are the crucial difference separating success from failure, accounting for when the best policies and practices emerge.

My own work, first in the U.S. military and then as an academic, demonstrates that civil society leaders and security policymakers alike must work as a team to achieve their community’s goals and that leaders and the strategies they adopt are the most powerful drivers shaping the world around us.

Three pillars supporting Batten’s evolution are clear: (1) cementing leadership and team-building best practices into our curriculum and policy outreach, (2) establishing Garrett Hall as a national locus of evidence-based policy research, and (3) teaching advanced policy analysis skills to UVA’s extraordinary students.”