Programme overview

The study programme in a nutshell

This online master programme will consist of five substantive courses. These five courses follow one another with an overlapping structure. In addition, the programme has a continuous Academic and Professional Skills course. The academic year is concluded with a thesis. (See a systematic representation of the courses below)

1. Public Management - Public management can be described as:
   1. the general management of organisations that operate in an environment in which public values play an important role; and/or
   2. the set of functional management activities (including but not limited to financial management, ICT management, human resources management, strategic management) that are required for public service delivery, and with that, for addressing social and governance issues. 

In the Public Management course, it is discussed how public management theories and practices have developed over time (think of the emerging popularity of New Public Management in the 1990s.and its subsequent demise since the 2000s) and how public management as theory, practice and ‘fad’ has been taking different shapes in various national and sectoral settings. In this course you will become acquainted with the core elements of public management theories and practices (from a functional and sector-specific perspective), and of how public management theories and practices have developed over time and space. 

2. Public Policy - The course is directed to the explanation of nature (form) and effectiveness of public policies: to what degree are public policies effective remedies to societal and governance issues, and how can we explain how and why public policies change over time, or are remarkably resistant to change? The course introduces how public policies are shaped by democratic decision-making procedures, and rule of law, and that in many cases this means that policies are remarkably stable over time, with policy change only occurring during critical junctures. Throughout the course, special attention is given to comparative analysis of public policies, or, in other words to the question of whether, and if so to what degree and why public policies differ in various national contexts. 
    
3. Organisational transitions - Public outcries, changes of political preferences, lack of effectiveness or operational efficiency, and poor public service quality are all relevant and arguably legitimate reasons to consider implementing change in organisations that deliver public services. Bringing about change, however, is no easy task: it may involve redesigning structures, aligning incentives with organisational goals, and moreover making sure people across the organisation embrace the change and change their organisational behaviour accordingly. Organisation studies as an academic discipline has given special attention to the role of leadership in making or breaking organisational change. Therefore, this course addresses theories of organisational leadership, including the interrelation between organisational leadership and national cultures.  
    
4. Governance - Our world is facing multiple complex, uncertain and value-laden problems – including international conflicts, migration, loss of biodiversity, and social injustices, to name a few. Such long-term processes of structural change addressing persistent societal problems are referred to as societal transitions or transformations, characterized by a multitude of actors (including but not limited to local and regional government bodies, social enterprises, multinational enterprises, and community organisations) seeking to influence them. This course focuses specifically on analyzing interactions between actors and identifying courses of action for actors seeking to actively explore, guide and accelerate ‘desirable’ societal dynamics, in the context of dwindling influence of Western dominated global institutions, the rise of non-governmental influence and anti-establishment social movements. As such, two guiding questions for this course are:
   1. How can we analyze and make sense of ways in which actors interact in complex decision-making processes in which multiple complex, uncertain and value-laden problems are addressed; and
   2. How can the abovementioned decision-making processes be adequately governed? 
       
5. Knowledge Impact and Ethics - Nowadays science and scientists are increasingly distrusted. At the same time is generally acknowledged that scientific knowledge is needed to tackle contemporary problems such as climate mitigation, fighting pandemic diseases, etc etc. In this course the balance between (pure, rigorous) rigorous scientific research and responsive, responsible and relevant research is addressed.

Academic and Professional Skills 

Academic education, arguably more than other forms of education, is not only about learning from existing literature and applying theoretical constructs to real-life situations. It is also about creating new knowledge through original thinking, sharing ideas with others, and doing research. The course ‘Academic and Professional Skills’ offers participants the opportunity to reflect on their own communication styles and roles in (cross-cultural) team settings and master skills related to sharing ideas through academic and professional writing, research design, advanced qualitative and quantitative data gathering and – analysis techniques. Lastly, the course focuses on participants’ learning experiences and styles throughout the Master's programme and the potential and prospects for learning and development beyond the Master's programme. 

Course guide