Trans-European Dialogue (TED) 6 - Public Sector Education
and Training in Europe
February 6-8, 2013, Potsdam, Germany
EGPA and NISPAcee together organize annually a "Trans
European Dialogue” (TED) under a specific topic to facilitate and intensify the
exchange of views and experiences among Public Administration scholars in
Europe. The last TED was the sixth of the series and took place at 6-8 February
2013 at the University of Potsdam (Germany). It dealt with the issue "Education
and Training: Preparing for the Future of the Public Sector in Europe”. In line
with the format of the TED, about 40 participants from 16 different countries
(7 from the NISPAcee-sphere) met in this event and discussed very intensively
about educational issues in the field of Public Administration. The
"dialogue”-concept of the TED worked well again: most of the participants made
rather short comments and contributed to a lively debate. The submission of
full papers was rather the exception.
The program of this TED was structured into 6 sessions
after a short opening ceremony where amongst others Mirko Vintar as
NISPAcee-president and Günther Wurster as president of the German Federal
Academy of Public Administration made their opening statements. The sessions
dealt with the following broad issues:
• PA-education
in a continental European legalistic setting
• Core
areas of teaching PA across Europe
• Experiences
with postgraduate programs: MPAs and its "competitors” in Europe
• New
didactical approaches and experiences
• Quality
assurance and accreditation in PA
• Wrap-up
and strategic reflections: Is the field of PA education prepared for the future
of the public sector in Europe?
The strong legalistic legacies of some continental
European countries and their educational systems (e.g. Germany but also some
Central and Eastern European countries) were critically discussed. An update of
the contents of academic degree programs in Europe showed that the change in
the last decade was rather modest. Still the diversity of teaching contents and
styles is high throughout Europe, although some convergence can be observed.
However, teaching is still the stepchild in our community – research is
perceived as being much more relevant for academic careers. Another issue was
the tension between national bureaucratic and international peer-based
accreditation. Most participants favoured international comparative accreditation
and criticized quite heavily the formality of governmental certifications only
focusing on probity.
Further information on the academic programme,
the participants and their contributions and future publications related to
TED5 can be found on TED's official website:
http://www.iias-iisa.org/egpa/events/dialogues/ted-trans-european-dialogue/