Search results

This chapter explores how experimental learning and transfer of learning can be designed in professional Master of Public Administration (MPA) programmes when external conditions constrain the application of learning formats that require the personal contact of students and/or the cooperation of the student’s employer.

The authors conduct a single case study of the professional MPA programme at the University of Kassel in Germany. The programme is based on the principles of blended learning with a high share of online teaching. The analysis is based on semi-structured interviews with students, document analysis and practical experience by one of the authors.

The study shows that attempts of bridging theory and practice have proved challenging in the past, which has, for instance, resulted in changes of course modules aiming directly at linking both domains. The findings are presented and discussed in the light of three different perspectives: (1) learning outcomes of professional MPAs and the theory-practice-nexus in a systems theory perspective; (2) the impacts of administrative culture; and (3) didactical/micro-level perspective. Furthermore, recommendations for practical purposes are derived.

The exploratory study does not provide strong generalisable results but aims at enriching the academic discussion as well as points to solutions for the practice.

Beyond useful insights on how (elements of) experimental learning are or might be implemented in the PA masters’ programme under study, the chapter offers a more generalised discussion of the challenges contextual factors might pose to the implementation of experimental learning formats and discusses possible solutions to overcome such challenges.

Public sector management education in the developing countries of the third world is focused on with regard to the situtation in Nigeria. The efforts and potential of a particular management training institution, the Faculty of Administration at Obafemi Awolowo University, are reviewed, first by tracing the development of its management training programmes and then outlining the current courses and activities. An assessment is made of the institution′s programmes as a credible management training response to the particular problems it faces in the current African situation, and it is found that the institution may not fully appreciate the new role‐expectations built around it as detailed in The World Bank report (1987) on management training for African development. Recommendations are given for African training institutions in general: future policy cannot exclude the reality of the particular country′s economic situation; existing personnel must be encouraged to specialise; there must be flexible arrangements for teaching and consultancy; adequate resources must be available; and there must be a fundamental change in the philosophy of the training institutions.

This chapter describes how public sector reform (PSR) became important following the ‘Doi Moi’ (renovation) programme in 1986. Restructuring of state-owned sector was regarded as crucial for ensuring the quality of economic growth, and the Vietnamese government (www.chinhphu.vn/portal/page/portal/English) put considerable effort in PSR. The 8th Party Congress (1996) emphasized the urgent need for a more transparent, capable and modern public sector, including efforts to improve law-making process and capacity, reducing burdensome bureaucracy, fighting corruption, increasing leadership by senior officials and improving public service delivery. The government specifies the national PSR Master programme, and the Ministry of Home Affairs coordinates its implementation among ministries, central agencies and provincial governments. Local political leaders (party leaders) determine reforms based on guidelines of the party and government. The author writes that in spite of ambitious public service reform programmes and some positive achievements, the quality of public sector remains poor. The professional capacity of civil service is low, pay is low, corruption is high and processes and structures seem ill-fitted for the market economy. Reform scope is too broad, the capacity of public agencies and civil servants is limited and existing monitoring, evaluation and reporting systems are weak. In some successes, leaders use appointment and promotion to encourage lower level to implement reforms and training to increase understanding. They believe that Vietnamese leadership has become less proactive and vigorous in practicing or embracing bold reform experiments.

This chapter reflects on a recent initiative as authors and tutors for the first module of a new online Masters in Public Administration (MPA) programme now offered by the University of Birmingham for public sector professionals around the world.

Our focus is particularly on the key lessons with regard to using the ‘online’ mode for ‘experiential learning’ – that is, facilitating our mid-career practitioner students in the acquisition of added management learning through critical analysis of, and structured reflection on, their work-based experience.

Three particular challenges for online programme designers are identified as follows: the challenge of achieving a ‘learner-centric’ online design (rather than a teacher-centric one); the challenge of facilitating effective communication (within the student group as much as between students and teachers); and the challenge of building an effective online learning community.

The chapter concludes by proposing strategies for approaching and mediating these three challenges in turn. With regard to ‘learner-centricity’ we advocate an approach that promotes in the students a spirit of inquiry and which encourages conceptualisation on the basis of their existing knowledge and experience, rather than following a traditional ‘teacher-centred’ and lecture-dominated pedagogy. In relation to communication, particularly critical is the choice of a high quality course management system (CMS) and exploitation to the full of the system’s capabilities in relation to computer-mediated communication (CMC), both within the student community and through ‘synchronous interaction’, between students and staff. Finally, on the building of a ‘learning community’ of students, we emphasise the importance of facilitating students’ cognitive and social presence throughout the modules and programme through the promotion of active engagement and critical reflection on the key issues in the curriculum.

This chapter tells the story of the initiation, development (over two decades) and collective contribution of the Copenhagen Forum since its foundation in 1996. This Forum comprises a grouping of teachers and directors of masters-level public administrative programmes (notably the MPA) from different academic institutions across Northern Europe. Each year a workshop is convened where a series of papers are presented by the participants, and from which this volume, and a number of other related publications, have been derived.

The chapter is essentially factual and descriptive in style; summarising the story of the Copenhagen Forum so far; doing so under the following five headings – ‘overview’, ‘origins’, ‘odyssey’, ‘outputs’ and ‘outcomes’.

The chapter is particularly oriented towards teachers of public administration and by focusing on the pedagogical aspects of the public management programmes that they are responsible for delivering, provides insights, guidance and suggestions from experience to help them develop their practice.

The aim is to provide readers with an appreciation of the context from which the inspiration for this volume, and the individual contributions, derive. It is a context that has been all about a shared fascination with, and collective commitment to, the advancement of learning and development among practicing public managers.

The urgency to strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of public administrations has led to the adoption in the public sector – in Italy as well as in other countries – of tools and models inspired by the total quality management (TQM) approach, such as the common assessment framework (CAF). A parallel need was felt within public structures to train people, the “peers”, who aside from being able to implement the self‐evaluation activities of their own administration, also needed to be equipped with the necessary skills to complete external evaluation activities, namely “peer evaluations”, with the ultimate aim of spreading quality management culture and best practices in the field through an approach based on benchmarking. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a survey designed to determine the training requirements that a “peer” should acquire in order to perform “evaluation” activities.

The paper has strong empirical connotations and is essentially based on, first, a questionnaire given to evaluators/self‐evaluators to identify the problems emerging with the application of the CAF model in administrations that have adopted it. In this sphere a great deal of attention has been paid to – in addition to the preparation of the questionnaire – the delicate task of codifying the answers to open questions proposed to interviewees; and second, the investigation inherent in the current educational choices in Italy in the TQM arena, specifically addressing the public sector.

Apart from the analysis of data obtained from the investigation, presented with descriptive statistics, the paper identifies the training content necessary: first, to place “peers” in a position to be able to autonomously and fully carry out their evaluation work on the basis of the CAF model; and second, to render the evaluation activities systematically comparable among the various administrations.

At the present time the research deals with the Italian context. However, future investigations involving different European countries could be carried out, taking the present results as a starting point for a benchmarking activity.

The paper puts forward the creation of a “network” of actors who manage all the “peer evaluation” activities, from the provision of the training pack and monitoring the “peer” exchange process, up to benchmarking initiatives and the dissemination of best practices.

The paper presents original data and information in order to identify the training needs of individuals that actually use CAF, starting from the assumption that the training of evaluators is the primary condition for promoting the adoption and diffusion of CAF in Italian public administrations and thus maximizing its benefits.

This research uses a multifaceted approach to develop an MPA/MPP curriculum to support a data science track within the existing MPA/MPP programs by identifying the core and elective areas needed.

The approach includes (1) identifying a suitable structure for MPA/MPP programs which can allow the program to develop its capacity to train students with the data science and general public administration skills to solve public policy problems and leave explicit space for local experimentation and modification; (2) defining bridging modules and required modules for the MPA/MPP programs; and (3) developing of data science track thought to make suggestions for the inclusion of suitable data science modules into the data science track and benchmarking the data science modules suggested with the best practices developed by other professional bodies. The authors review 46 NASPAA-accredited MPA/MPP programs from 40 (or 22.7%) schools to identify the suitable required modules and some potential data science and analytics courses that MPA/MPP programs currently provide as electives.

The proposal includes a three-course (six–nine credits, not counted in the program but as prerequisites) bridging module, a nine-course (27 credits) required module and a five-course (15 credits) data science track/concentration.

This work can provide a starting point for the public administration education community to develop graduate programs focusing on data science to cater to the needs of both public managers and society at large.

The design and launching of Master's degree programmes in management is a major task facing the polytechnics in Britain. Having existed for some six or seven years, they have achieved their initial objective of creating an appropriate range of first degree programmes, exhibiting the characteristics of career orientation, multi‐disciplinary structures, innovative learning methods and relevant assessment systems. The replacement of External London University Degree courses by Council for National Academic Award programmes has accompanied the conversion of the large colleges of technologies of the nineteen sixties into the polytechnics of the nineteen seventies. Many problems still exist in the first degree range: the provision of part‐time study versions to offset overgearing to full time students, the development of course network approaches, and the integration of sub‐degree work within total programmes of which first degrees are currently the main focus—in that connection the evolution of the Diploma in Higher Education could be a key item.

Nobody concerned with political economy can neglect the history of economic doctrines. Structural changes in the economy and society influence economic thinking and, conversely, innovative thought structures and attitudes have almost always forced economic institutions and modes of behaviour to adjust. We learn from the history of economic doctrines how a particular theory emerged and whether, and in which environment, it could take root. We can see how a school evolves out of a common methodological perception and similar techniques of analysis, and how it has to establish itself. The interaction between unresolved problems on the one hand, and the search for better solutions or explanations on the other, leads to a change in paradigma and to the formation of new lines of reasoning. As long as the real world is subject to progress and change scientific search for explanation must out of necessity continue.