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Careers Advice for STEAPP Career Changers

By Siobhan Pipa, on 22 July 2021

By Pablo Costa and Amy Lourenco

Many of our UCL STEaPP MPA students are hoping to make a career change to work for a range of policy/strategy focussed organisations all over the world after a successful career in another field. As MPA students approach the end of their courses we wanted to share a few tips for those who are embarking on this career change.

Photo by Brendan Church on Unsplash

You are not alone

You might be career-changing, but you are certainly not the first nor the last to do so. In fact, it is becoming more and more common.  According to an Aviva 2021 report, the number of people in the UK planning a career change has increased from 53% to 60% since July 2020. This same report states that over UK 700,000 workers plan to switch to a role that helps others; much like the reason why many MPA students choose to find roles within the public sector. Making a career shift can be challenging but remember you are not alone in this journey and support is available up to 3 years after graduation from the UCL Careers team.

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Walking, cycling and using public transport: how the UK government offers to develop urban mobility

By katerynatsybenko, on 16 December 2020

Kateryna Tsybenko is an MPA candidate in Science, Engineering and Public Policy

Recently, the Ukrainian Minister of Infrastructure Vladyslav Krykliy announced that Ukraine plans to replace all public transport with electric transport by 2030. It will take place within the framework of the implementation of the National Transport Strategy.

I currently study in the UK, and I researched the UK’s urban mobility strategy; and in this blog, I want to share urban mobility trends in this country. The key in it is the emphasis on inclusiveness, encouraging citizens to use public transport instead of individual transport, ride-sharing, walking and cycling, and broad support for all these means of transportation, including through open data.

Image of trams and bus

Anne Burgess / Integrated Public Transport

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The Infinite Game of Disinformation

By Alex Shepherd, on 15 October 2020

Alex Shepherd (@palexshepherd) is a nationally recognised subject matter expert on disinformation. He has delivered talks on the subject at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge, and has actively engaged with representatives from the UK government’s Sub-Committee on Disinformation. He is currently a senior AI researcher at Oxford Brookes University and a Digital Technologies and Policy MPA candidate at UCL STEaPP. 

Disinformation is one of the most important issues we face today, not only due to the massive social impact and disruption it creates globally, but also due to its exceptionally robust nature. This blog post, inspired by the tweetstorm “Some thoughts on disinformation”, attempts to explain disinformation’s robustness through the lens of game theory and analysis of technology trends.

Man using tablet to view fake news website

The concept of infinite games and finite games was popularised by Simon Sinek in his book, The Infinite Game, and at a keynote speech he delivered at a New York Times event. The book was influenced, in part, by James P. Carse’s book Finite and Infinite Games, which in turn was influenced by basic game theory.

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Top 3 tips for incoming MPA students

By fredrikskippervold, on 2 September 2020

Fredrik Johan Skippervold is a UCL MPA Graduate within Digital Technologies and Policy 18/19. He holds a Bachelor of Law with Spanish and is currently a researcher at The PETRAS National Centre of Excellence for IoT Systems Cybersecurity.

Study location

School of Slavonic and East European Studies Library

School of Slavonic and East European Studies Library

There are plenty of libraries to choose from at UCL, some are a little more discreet and harder to find than others. Knowing where these can be found will be very useful as exam season starts and you find yourself sitting on the floor at the student centre. Here is a list of libraries at UCL.

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From Cyber Stalking to Spyware: what do we know about stalkerware in intimate partner violence situations?

By jay, on 3 July 2020

By MPA candidates Jay Neuner, Maddalena Esposito and Thomas Bermudez 

Smartphones and other devices are the lifelines of the modern world. Navigation, information, connection – these critical resources are right at our fingertips.

But for some, the very devices used to enrich their lives are now being used to endanger them. Through “stalkerware” – apps that, once downloaded onto a device, can geo-locate, log keystrokes, access other apps, and much more – others can monitor and even manipulate the device user’s activity. Some of these apps are nearly undetectable. Worryingly, reports from news media, advocacy groups, academia, and others are finding that many perpetrators of these malicious acts are none other than a spouse or other intimate partner, as one of many means of perpetrating intimate partner violence (IPV).

Chayn logo

Chayn logo

These apps represent a disturbing evolution in the phenomena of cyber-stalking, online harassment, and other technology-facilitated abuse. While those fields are increasingly well-documented (though still limited by the relative nascency of the digital realm), stalkerware’s use in IPV is an emerging field requiring much more research.

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