Bachelor of Science in Public Administration and Management
How to deal with social challenges such as climate change and digitalisation? And how to bring into alignment various stakeholder groups - the government, its citizens, politicians, civil society? Graduates of Public Administration and Management serve as “interpreters” who translate political, legal and economic aspects to an administration context, and vice versa.
What
The Public Administration and Management programme finds itself at the crossroads of Political Sciences, Economics, and Law. Blending these three study programmes together results in a very interesting mix known as the Public Administration and Management programme. You will come to understand the workings of the government, and the decision-making process at all policy levels. In addition, you will gain an in-depth knowledge of administration, policy, law, economics, politics, and management. You take various social challenges as your starting point and set to work in an action-oriented manner.
After all, managing a public organisation vs. managing a business requires entirely different skills sets. A public institution has different stakeholders: the regulatory framework imposed by the government, citizens with acquired rights such as public participation, political parties with varying degrees of leverage, ... . In the course of this study programme (unique in Flanders!) you learn to combine different perspectives and to become an “interpreter” who can bring those different stakeholders in alignment.
Remarks
For whom
Are you looking to have an impact on social challenges? Are you looking to study a combination of policy-making, law, management, economics and politics? Are you looking for an interactive study programme that covers topical issues?
If the answer to the questions above is a resounding ‘yes’, the Public Administration and Management programme is the right choice for you.
Structure
Bachelor
We offer you a strong basic knowledge of political sciences and economics, of the organisation and workings of the public sector, the broad legal aspects that underlie social challenges, and the workings of (European) government institutions. You will learn to plumb the depths of policy-making in public organisations, as well as study the structure and processes in public and private organisations. You will cultivate your academic competencies, and give shape to your learning trajectory by means of elective course units. In addition, you will study two foreign languages: French, English, or German. During the mandatory nine-week work placement you put into practice the knowledge and skills you have acquired.
- If you are you looking to have an impact on climate change, you might want to consider embarking on a work placement at the province of East Flanders to support the local municipalities with the design and implementation of their climate plans.
- If, on the other hand, you are more interested in the “expert advice” cornerstone, you might want to investigate how to draw in experts on the issue of social housing policy, or to embark on a work placement at a consultancy agency that assesses how the European Union managed the banking crisis or the migration crisis.
- Then again, if you are more into digitalisation, you might want to work on innovative digitalisation projects in collaboration with start-ups and Sandbox Vlaanderen, the Flemish Government’s innovation environment. Or you can gather information on how the Flemish Department of Economy, Science and Innovation might stimulate businesses and Small- to Medium-sized Entreprises (SMEs) in the use of AI.
Master
The Master’s curriculum offers you a thorough academic orientation on the study of public administration: e.g. what are relevant tendencies for managers? This includes an in-depth study of the management of organisations in the public, social profit and non-profit sectors: dealing with politicians and critical customers, working in a democratic context of open government, scrutiny and participation. The curriculum contains a common base of administration and management course units, as well as a component of research methodology. Elective clusters in the curriculum offer various perspectives like Governance Issues, International Administration, Performance Management, Security, ICT, Communication, and Social Profit. The Master’s programme culminates in a Master's dissertation.
In addition to the (domain) Master’s programme described above, you can also choose a Master’s Programme in Teaching (in Dutch: Educatieve Master).
Labour Market
The Public Administration and Management programme delivers graduates who wish to have an impact on society (e.g. in the context of climate, expert advice, and digitalisation). Our graduates often end up in the public, social or non-profit sectors: the European institutions, the Flemish and the Federal Government (ministries, among others), the judiciary system, political parties, municipalities, welfare organisations, hospitals, cultural centres, etc... They also find job opportunities in corporate life or consultancy.
Specific jobs our alumni have secured are: expert on the implementation of climate plans at a province, project officer on digitalisation at the Flemish Government or the European Union, ministerial staff member, HR expert at a hospital, consultant who assesses how the European Union has managed the banking or migration crisis, financial auditor at a public enterprise, ...
Quality Assurance
At Ghent University, we strive to educate people who dare to think about the challenges of tomorrow. For that purpose, we provide education that is embedded in six strategic objectives: Think Broadly, Keep Researching, Cultivate Talent, Contribute, Extend Horizons, Opt for Quality.
Ghent University continuously focuses on quality assurance and quality culture. The Ghent University's quality assurance system offers information on each study programme’s unique selling points, and on its strengths and weaknesses with regard to quality assurance.
More information:
Unique Selling Points
- Our lecturers are especially committed vis-à- vis students, they put into practice what they teach, and as experts, e.g. in their position as president of the European Environment Agency (EEA) Scientific Committee, Head of Cabinet, ..., they can also weigh on policy.
- Our study programme focuses on government policy and governance at different levels (such as local/regional/federal/EU administrations and non-profit sectors), and in all its forms.
- Multidisciplinarity is part of our programme’s DNA. The curriculum combines the core disciplines of law, management, public administration and policy analysis, economics and finance with relevant knowledge from other disciplines (e.g. languages, informatics and research methods).
- Our curriculum contains a solid academic basis. Our core team provides thoroughly research-based education as well as an explicit methodological learning pathway. As a result, our students gradually develop their research skills, which eventually culminates in the Master’s dissertation.
- We explicitly combine our strong academic groundwork with practical experience and insights. This strong knowledge base also serves towards the development of practical skills.
- We are fully committed to the principle of active teaching, by means of which we want to make students understand and question the subject matter at hand critically. In other words, we want to do more than provide ex cathedra teaching. We achieve this by means of applications, specific cases, strong interaction via Q&A, exercises, presentations, etc.
- We offer unique opportunities for internationalisation: a study visit to the European institutions, participation in the international NASPAA-Batten Student Simulation Competition, ... . presentations, etc.
Strengths
- Our programme is fully NVAO-accredited and recognized by international accreditation agencies. This is evident in our achieving the ICAPA and EIAPA accreditations for the Bachelor’s and the Master’s programme.
- Our programme is well-attuned to the labour market: 90% of our graduates indicate that they find employment within two months of graduation. It goes without saying that our graduates naturally end up in public and semi-public organisations at all levels of government, but also in the broader social and non-profit sectors, and sometimes even in the private sector (e.g. in temporary employment or at consultancy companies).
- Our programme is valued by both students and graduates in terms of content as well as in terms of the overall education process, as is apparent from quantitative and qualitative surveys year after year.
- Our programme interacts strongly with the professional field, which ensures that the most topical issues and insights from practice find their way into the curriculum, and vice versa. Knowledge and expertise is transferred from our programme to the professional field. After all, our lecturers are in high demand by the field (e.g. in the context of lectures, supervision and consultancy assignments, juries). We, in turn, also integrate various practical cases, guest speakers, site visits, etc. into study programme.
- A specific strength of ours is the mandatory work placement which is programmed in the third year, and during which students carry out a practical assignment within an organization. Work placement supervisors appreciate the maturity and qualities of our students. This is reflected in the many returning offers for work place assignments we receive year after year. Students, in turn, indicate that the work placement is a unique experience for them, and a great help in orienting themselves on the future job market.
Weaknesses
- Although a number of internationalisation opportunities are already in place (e.g. Erasmus exchanges, international lecturers, English-taught course units), we want to strengthen this dimension of our programme further (e.g. by looking for more exchange partners). In doing so, we keep monitoring a proper balance between the local context and international components, the composition of the student population and the international community, exchange and training.
- Our programme is an interactive one. However, the workload associated with active teaching methods in relation to the student numbers remains a point of attention. From an international perspective, and even though investments have been made in recent years, we only have limited staffing in the light of our student numbers. We absolutely want to maintain the close and personal interaction between lecturers, students and the professional field.
- We have been interacting with alumni for years, but in a rather ad hoc manner. Stronger, structurally embedded alumni activities are on the agenda: we want to achieve stronger alumni involvement in our programme, and conversely, we also want to propose members from our programme to the lifelong learning network.
This study programme is accredited by the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (Dutch: NVAO). Accreditation was extended following the positive outcome of the institutional review in 2022. Programme quality was validated by a quality review, i.e. a screening of the Education Monitor by the Education Quality Board. The Quality Assurance Resolution (in Dutch) can be found here.
This program is accredited by AACSB International – The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. AACSB is a global nonprofit association whose accreditation processes are ISO 9001:2015 certified.This information was last updated on 06/02/2023.
In case of questions or suggestions with regard to the publicly available information, please contact the study programme.