History

The Jackson School of Global Affairs was established on July 1, 2022. It is the first professional school to be established at Yale in forty-six years.

The school builds on Yale’s centuries-long tradition of educating leaders. Yale’s graduates include five U.S. presidents; seven U.S. Secretaries of State; the presidents or prime ministers of Mexico, South Korea, and Germany; numerous ambassadors; and many heads of private and non-profit enterprises that contribute to the public good such as Human Rights Watch, Ashoka, Unite for Sight, and the Peace Corps.

Prior to becoming a stand-alone professional school Jackson was known as the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. The institute was built on what was the International Affairs Council at the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies in 2009 after a transformational gift from John W. Jackson ’67 and Susan G. Jackson.

The International Affairs Council, a founding member of the Association of Professional Schools in International Affairs (APSIA), was the home of Yale’s Master of Arts in International Relations and the undergraduate major in international studies. The Master of Arts in International Relations became the Master of Arts in Global Affairs in 2013. In fall 2022, with Jackson's transformation to a stand-alone professional school, the Master of Arts degree changed its name to the Master in Public Policy in Global Affairs. The undergraduate major in international studies became a stand-alone major in global affairs during the 2011–2012 academic year.

In July 2015 the Jackson Institute separated from the MacMillan Center into an independent organization. In 2019, the Yale Board of Trustees approved plans to expand the institute into a stand-alone professional school. In January 2022, President Salovey announced that the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs would open in the fall of 2022, and he named Professor James Levinsohn the inaugural dean.

Mission

The mission of the Jackson School of Global Affairs is to educate leaders in the fields of global affairs and to support world-leading research addressing the most important policy challenges. It seeks to provide students with an interdisciplinary education that gives them the ideas, concepts, and skills to be creative problem solvers.

Accreditation

The Jackson School’s accreditation is encompassed by Yale University’s accreditation by the New England Commission of Higher Education (formerly the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges).