Master in Public Governance, Management and Policy (online)
Erasmus University Rotterdam - Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Key Information
Campus location
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Languages
English
Study format
Distance Learning
Duration
1 year
Pace
Full time
Tuition fees
EUR 15,700 / per year *
Application deadline
15 Jun 2024
Earliest start date
Sep 2024
* institutional fee: non-EEA students | €12.400: institutional fee: Dutch / EEA students | €2.209: statutory fee: Dutch / EEA students
Introduction
Is this the programme you're looking for?
Are you interested in learning about societal problems and governance responses in an online community? Discover our new online master Public Governance, Management and Policy.
The study programme in a nutshell
This online master's is the best choice for students who are interested in learning about societal problems and governance responses in an online community. The participating students’ national and regional contexts in this master's will be utilised for educational purposes. For example, by conducting comparative case studies and/or giving policy advice in different cultural and institutional contexts.
What does this study entail?
The online master Public Governance, Management and Policy is a Public Administration master that is the best choice for students who are interested in learning about societal problems and governance responses in an online community. The participating students’ national and regional contexts in this master will be utilised for educational purposes. For example, by conducting comparative case studies and/or giving policy advice in different cultural and institutional contexts.
Bringing students with different (disciplinary and/or cultural) perspectives and interests together is one of the essential highlights of this programme that students of this programme will learn from. Students will be challenged to understand and combine economic, sociological, political, and judicial perspectives on societal problems and public sector processes and engage with various international public sector systems in order to appreciate international differences.
Physical kick-off at campus Woudestein
This online master's programme will kick the academic year off with a face-to-face (mid)week, which will take place in Rotterdam. The introduction week is mandatory for all the students who participate in the online master. The kick-off will allow students to meet each other 'in real life’ as the basis for participation in a thriving online community. Students are responsible for arranging their own accommodation during this introduction week. However, students will be offered various options for accommodations in or near Rotterdam, but students can also choose accommodation that suits their own needs and preferences.
Curriculum
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)
- Public Management - Public management can be described as:
- the general management of organisations that operate in an environment in which public values play an important role; and/or
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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:
- 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
- How can the abovementioned decision-making processes be adequately governed?
- 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 literatures and applying theoretical constructs to real-life situation, it is also about creating new knowledge through original thinking, share 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 to master skills related to sharing ideas through academic and professional writing, research design, advanced qualitative and quantitative data gathering and – analyses techniques. Lastly, the course focuses on participants’ learning experiences and styles throughout the Master programme and the potential and prospects for learning and development beyond the Master programme.
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
Opportunities after graduating
We educate and train public administrators who can identify and analyze social and governance issues, advise on solutions, and organize the requisite processes in a professional, independent, and advanced way.
Students will fulfill an advising or managing role within public sector organizations, or in organizations that are involved in addressing societal and governance challenges. Furthermore, students will be able to work in a swiftly changing context and will develop an eye for public issues and contemporary political developments. They will be focusing on the legitimacy of governance, the public interest, and democracy, and will be able to work in different fields and organizations.