The Future of Public Management Education

While there is a very strong consensus among the public administration academic community in North America and increasingly in Europe and around the world that that the best preparation for career in public service is a formal... [ view full abstract ]

While there is a very strong consensus among the public administration academic community in North America and increasingly in Europe and around the world that that the best preparation for career in public service is a formal education in public administration or public policy preferably at the graduate level. The focus on a degree in public management implies that there is a set of “competencies” that can be acquired via traditional academic activities that will lead to some sense of professional identity, a set of skills and a broad ethical framework that will guide you throughout your professional career. Yet is this the case?

Public administration is not the only profession that has no gatekeeper within the academic community, but it is the only one in which such a small number of practitioners have any professional education in public administration. Indeed the only real comparator or similar profession is business management. However, business degrees and especially the MBA have an unrivalled hold on senior leadership in a way that is far beyond the grasp of public administration. At any give time over 40% of CEOs in the S and P top 500 companies have an MBA degrees. In contrast at last count in Canada only one deputy minister in the federal government had and MPA and she had been appointed on 2016.

What then is the role of public administration education with the profession? Is it really just signalling to government employers that you are committed to this career or is there real learning going on that will make MPA graduates better public managers? Is the ultimate goal to obtain something like the cache of the MBA, to become the highly regarded and valued credential that combines both academic prestige and guaranteed economic success while also charging premier tuition rates and with a vast apparatus associated with professional education for existing practitioners?

It does appear that MPA/MPP programs are imitating the MBA model, in pursuing increasingly levels of accreditation, offering strong executive education programs, looking for prestigious international partnerships, and creating valuable internship opportunities which can fast track MPA gradates into good career focused positions in various governments.

Yet is this the best approach. Is it good for governments? Is it good for students? Might there be a better model for developing public service professionals? Should governments concentrate on hiring from MPA programs or should they look to these programs for training of their own officials after they have had some experience in government and whom they have selected themselves. What are the range of possible options, and which ones are appropriate for different public service contexts, both nationally, sub nationally and locally? In short, are we on the right path by imitating MBA programs, or should we find a different more durable role in helping build the public service of the future.