30th NISPAcee Annual Conference

"Crises, Vulnerability and Resilience in Public Administration"

June 2-4, 2022

Bucharest, Romania

WG7: Public Administration Education

Working group coordinator:

Calin Hintea, Babes-Bolyai University, Department of Public Administration, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, hintea@fspac.ro

Roger Hamlin, Michigan State University and Babes-Bolyai University, hamlin@msu.edu

– Report

The Public Administration Education working group was very active during the 2022 NISPAcee conference in Bucharest, despite past and present disruptions caused by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.  We held one online panel during which 3 papers were presented. We held 3 additional sessions, which were both face-to-face and mixed, with a total of 14 papers.

Both the online and mixed panels were active and interesting, and the participants were engaged in lively discussions.

The presenters came from 7 different countries including Romania, Russia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, China and the United States.  They represented 11 different universities.

A wide range of important issues related to the future of public administration higher education were discussed. Several papers linked their discussion to the effects of the pandemic. Specific issues included: ethics education; effects of digitalisation on pedagogy, curriculum, and competencies; gender issues in education; university/community relationships, as well as student success and well-being in the face of potential pandemic burnout.

In general, the focus was on the critical issues facing PA education in the context of the conference topics of crisis and change.

The WG coordinators agreed that the quality of papers has steadily improved over the years and that the 2022 papers were generally very good. Many WG participants return year after year, refining their research and learning from the WG discussions. This was the 10th meeting of the Education Working Group. The WG has become a small community in NISPAcee despite the pandemic changes.

We look forward to connecting with WG participants throughout the year and at the next NISPAcee conference.