This paper discusses the challenges of professional education for mid-career public managers at graduate level, pointing out pitfalls to avoid and obstacles to face. Analyzing the Brazilian case, the goal is to raise issues that may also be present in other cases. The main argument developed here is that the puzzle faced by graduate programs on…

This article argues that action learning has been incorporated into the Chinese administrative system because of a functional need for Western learning technology. This finding contrasts with those presented in the existing literature, which assert that Western practices have only been partially implemented, if implemented at all, because they…

According to classical elite theory, increased circulation is related to increased integration which is thought to increase elites' power. Based on a comparative analysis of some European countries' elite education systems, recruitment to elite positions and degrees of circulation--with a specific focus on administrative elites--this article…

Conventionally, quantitative surveys are used for student evaluations in higher education, but the validity of this practice has been questioned. In the present study, we investigated a qualitative method for evaluating a bachelor's programme. Forty-one first-year students and twenty-eight third-year students on a bachelor's programme in Public…

This article begins by reviewing developments in the field of public administration over the past 50 years and identifying factors that have served, in some cases unintentionally, to undermine public confidence in the actual practice of public administration. It then examines a number of important conditions that must be addressed in the…

The coming future for parks and recreation education must not succumb to the nostalgia of the glory days of the past. Such nostalgia risks oversimplifying the challenges overcome in the past and challenges faced now and in the future. This paper presents compelling evidence for the repositioning of parks and recreation education. It first frames…

This paper reports on part of an on-going interview-based study of the eight permanent secretaries who served at the Department for Education from 1976 to 2012. Following a discussion of the relevance of biography to the study of public sector administrators, it presents a portrait of Sir Tim Lankester. Based on his own account and that of…

The question of whether the field of public administration education is prepared for the future of the public sector in Europe is a complex one, which needs to be unpacked to give a grounded answer. Unpacking this question means that there needs to be discussions on not just what educating the field of public administration means, but also…

Over the past decades, Public Administration (PA) education programmes in Europe shifted their focus from a predominantly law-oriented approach to a more multidisciplinary, social science and managerial one. This paper deals with the tenacity of traditional, law-oriented PA education programmes that can be found in a limited, but not…

Blended learning is already a strongly established way of teaching in higher education. In support of face-to-face teaching, e-courses may vary in structure, assignments, prompt examinations, interaction between students and teachers etc. In the paper, we present an analysis of factors that influence the usefulness of e-courses as perceived by…

The changing nature of the world that public managers inhabit requires strategies for sense-making. This is frequently the reason why managers engage in mid-career education. Disciplinary elements provide knowledge and insights. However, growing significance is being placed on enabling practitioners to reflect on their own practice and…

Change and transformation in the understanding and definition of citizenship has led to the emergence of citizen-oriented public service approach. This approach also raised a new term and concept in the field of public budgeting because of the transformation in the processes of public budgeting: citizens' budget. The citizens' budget which seeks…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore and critically assess the potential value and effectiveness of massive open online courses (MOOCs) for public administration education. Design/methodology/approach: The research in this conceptual paper offered a critical examination of MOOCs using the work of Baudrillard, Debord, and others to…

The decolonialisation of the higher education curriculum and free higher education were two of the burning issues during student protests that erupted across universities in South Africa at the end of 2015. Although the president announced free higher education in December 2017, the country can scarcely afford it, with many universities already…

Leadership forms a key component of the curriculum of most Master of Public Administration and other public management programmes, usually doing so on the basis of assumptions that leadership is (a) both a subject and a responsibility that all such students might expect to embrace in the course of their careers; and (b) in some respects at least,…