SMU Professor of Public Policy Ann Florini said that finding sustainable solutions to the world’s biggest challenges require business, government and civil society to work together, and the sooner people from all three sectors are equipped for this, the better. Prof Florini said the description of the three as separate arenas had never been very realistic and it is this reason that SMU is launching a Master of Tri-Sector Collaboration, to meet a need that cannot be met fully in a traditional Master of Business Administration (MBA) or Master in Public Policy. Prof Florini said this is not a variant of a MBA or public policy degree programme, but developed from scratch. To her knowledge, this is the only course of its kind in the world. An entirely new content had been developed for this programme, focusing on topics like executing change, metrics that measure economic, environmental and social performance and megatrends. Students then apply all of these to solving real-world problems culminating in a capstone exercise. The idea is also to tap on students’ work experiences where all are expected to continue with their day jobs as the modular course will be held over 10 intensive weeks, spread out over 18 months. SMU is expecting a first cohort of about 30 students, drawn from businesses, governments and civil society organisations to start next January and may expand the intake to 45 students for future cohorts.