EAPAA Panel: The evaluation of public administration teaching
Taco Brandsen’s research focuses on
public services (esp. in education, housing, health care) and the
current issues facing policymakers and managers in this area. How can
innovation be encouraged? What happens when organisations in the public
services operate at the intersection of state, market and civil society?
How can citizens participate meaningfully in the (co-)production of
these services?
In addition to his activities at Radboud University, Taco Brandsen heads the European association accrediting public administration programmes in higher education (EAPAA).
EAPAA, the European Association for Public Administration Accreditation, is Europe's foremost accreditation agency in the field of public administration. It was founded in 1999 by the European public administration community to raise the quality of public administration education and has evaluated programmes in 15 countries. It is governed jointly by EGPA and NISPAcee.
Since public administration programmes are different in nature, EAPAA awards two different types of quality evaluation:
(a) Accreditation
(b) Certification
The goal of this session is to give information about EAPAA accreditation and certification in the CEE region, answering the following questions:
-What are the procedures and criteria for each type of evaluation?
-What are the benefits and risks of engaging in such a process?
-What are the strong/weak points that programmes should watch out for?
Certification represents a lighter procedure at lower costs. Certification may but must not serve as a first step towards accreditation, depending on the internal decision of the evaluated programme. Accreditation is a more comprehensive and costly external quality evaluation process.