The 2026 MINT reform: What is the Future of the MINT program?

By Sabrina Casale and Chiara Cavaletto

The Graduate Press interviewed Hamna Chohan, GISA administrative director, in regards to the proposed MINT reform.

On November 20th, 2025, all students got the Graduate Institute’s newsletter. Far down in the email, there was an interview with the MINT team about reforming the last semester of the Master’s Degree in International and Development Studies. There have been talks about the reform for a while now, which will come into effect starting with next year’s MINT cohort. 

The changes will affect the final semester of the master’s program, the thesis becoming an option students would need to apply for, rather than a requirement for graduation. The changes would bring in “professionalizing courses” and a “transversal career forum” instead of the thesis requirement. The change has been justified as “adjusting the program to the needs of our time.” Students will have the option to choose two of 15 specialized courses, which supposedly range in topics relevant to employers. They would also be specific to jobs and in-demand skills. At this time, it has not been clarified what skills would be targeted by these courses. Another interesting change is that the internships credits would go from 3 to 9 credits per semester.

This moves the MINT track away from a research program, and brings it closer to a professional postgraduate one. It seems to be a far cry from what the program is advertised as now. 

Generally, Master’s degrees are understood to involve a thesis, or at the very least a capstone project, as they are research-oriented programs. This update is effectively going to prevent MINT students from pursuing a PhD afterwards. This reform will affect the overall value of all MINT degrees, going as far as implying that if students are interested in pursuing a PhD students should choose a different track. Speculatively, a lack of supervisors could be one of the reasons for the change; however, this has not been confirmed by the institute.

The selection process to do a thesis is based on unclear criteria, but we know it will only be available to a few students. Despite the claims that students were involved and due process was followed, students’ opinions were not necessarily taken into account. However, around 80% of students surveyed oppose the reform, and the administration is proceeding with the changes rather than listening to concerns and trying to actually serve students. There are much more appealing options than a professionalizing course, which can be taken for free (or at least much cheaper than this degree). There are much more useless parts of the degree that could be easily eliminated, such as workshops. While workshops may provide a theoretical background, students don’t particularly value the skills they have acquired through these. Making an internship mandatory and producing a report on it instead would likely achieve a much better outcome (safe for the requirement to work for free in most cases). 

GISA was able to push for scheduling a townhall with the MINT team where the student body could voice their concerns on the MINT reform. This townhall is to be held on 16 December from 8:15-9:15 AM. GISA tried negotiating for an earlier date for townhall, but the negotiations remained unsuccessful. Looking at this slot, the townhall seems more tokenistic than a platform for conversation.

What can we do about it?

As Hamna explained in our interview, this is not the first time that students have had to press the Institute’s office before seeing tangible results. Hamna recalls that, as administrative director, she experienced firsthand how difficult it was to establish something as simple as the GISA office within the Institute. The office required numerous negotiations before being approved, but ultimately, it succeeded.

This piece aims to approach the issue with hope. However, this hope can easily be undermined by the student body’s indifference. From the interview with Hamna, a difficult truth emerged: it seems that students at the Graduate Institute often feel little connection to their student associations and can even be detached from their student representatives, whose faces they may not even know. This attitude has significant consequences for life at the Institute: not only does it prevent a vibrant student life, but it also hinders effective responses to issues that require mobilization and participation in general assemblies.

Hamna emphasized that this issue was already identified by the previous presidency. However, they did not reach out to students as actively as is being done today, as the matter has now become more pressing. Therefore, she stressed the need to push forward: mobilization is crucial, awareness is fundamental, and spreading the message is even more important. The MINT reform affects all MINT students, not just the new generations entering the professionalizing course. It impacts all of us, as it may fundamentally change how our Master’s degree is perceived outside the Institute and our role within this university. In a program where academics are already not the primary focus compared to other programs, finishing without a thesis would change the essential skills required to complete the academic journey.

This interview led us to a reflection: a Master’s thesis is not only about the final product. It proves to future endeavors that we have research and organizational skills, and we can build an innovative approach from scratch. We can address an existing and possibly debated issue, offering a new perspective or shedding new light on it. These skills should not be limited to a select few “deserving” students as they are the ones that a world increasingly reliant on technology cannot fully replace with AI.

Now is the time to discuss this issue, to be present, and to advocate for more mobilization and dialogue with the Institute’s administration. We should aim to create a Graduate Institute where students are not passive participants but active contributors, involved in shaping ideas and exercising real voting power.