Learn to address political-administrative, societal, and technological challenges through the development of public policy, public management, and public governance.
As a student of this Master’s, you will learn to investigate and find solutions to complex public issues that society is facing today. You will ask yourself: what does good public governance entail in an increasingly digital society? How can you make collective decisions for society, based on limited, or even contradictory information and evidence? In essence, you are prepared to play a vital role in (supporting) government decision-making and implementation processes. You will learn to investigate, develop, analyse and evaluate public policies in the face of multiple and conflicting stakeholder interests.
This Master’s places public administration in today’s modern technological context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. What does it take for governments to implement new sustainable energy technologies? How can governments adapt their infrastructures to self-driving cars? How can governments prevent the outbreak of new viruses? What are the opportunities and challenges of smart cities? But also, how can governments themselves optimise their workflow by adopting automation technologies? There is a very broad range of topics, domains and challenges you can explore yourself within this Master’s.
As a student of the Master’s in Public Administration at UT, you have the opportunity to tailor your programme to your interests and ambitions. You will not just gain a strong foundation in core themes within the field of public administration, but you will be able to develop your own unique profile with a selection of profile courses, combined with your final thesis.
You might want to become a public manager within the healthcare sector or advise governments on sustainable policies. Or what about starting a career with the police? Your Master’s in Public Administration at the University of Twente is the perfect starting point to build expertise for your future career!
You can choose to build your curriculum around one of six unique profiles, each of which covers a specific domain within public administration.
If you are interested in the foundations of public governance within all levels of the Dutch government, the Dutch-taught profile Nederlands Openbaar Bestuur is right for you. It’s a cross-over profile in which you can deal with a lot of different topics within local, regional, and national governance. For example, how can the autonomy of local and regional governments (i.e. municipalities and provinces) be strengthened? How can you ensure good collaborations between the different levels of government? What does it take to manifest a new culture in Dutch politics and administrative organisations, such as the Dutch tax authority? What impact does algorithmic governance have? In essence, you will be prepared to work within the context of Dutch public governance.
How do you make sure that healthcare innovations work as expected and are properly implemented by health care professionals and patients? What does it take to launch a large-scale vaccination programme, and convince people to get vaccinated? How, as a government, do you address a national shortage of healthcare personnel? And how can you prevent inequality in access to health technologies? The healthcare profile will deepen your understanding of the dynamics behind healthcare governance.
The maintenance of public order and security is one of the fundamental responsibilities of the government. In this profile domain, you will focus on public safety governance, with special attention to public and private policing. How can you tackle organised (drug) crime across borders? Or effectively manage police resources to deal with violent protests? What technologies support such activities with what (un)intended effects on privacy? To what extent should we use digital technologies (e.g. cameras or internet tracking) for surveillance purposes – and how would mass surveillance harm society? But also, how can you design proper strategies for crisis prevention and management as a government?
Achieving the sustainable development goals is one of, if not, the most important topics on the public agenda nowadays. In the conversion to sustainable energy sources, how do you decide where to place windmills or solar parks and how do you involve citizens in the decision process? How to engage farmers and other stakeholders in the protection of nature? What alliances are needed if you want to ensure a constant supply of biokerosene to an airport like Schiphol? But also: how can you make a city more climate-resilient, protecting it against floods as well as heat waves that are becoming more frequent due to climate change? These are just a few illustrative questions you will come across within this profile domain.
To address societal problems, governments often focus on formal procedures and neglect deliberative policy development at a meta-level. For example, nuclear energy can be defined in terms of its problematic long-term waste, but also in terms of its contribution to energy production in the face of CO2 emission reduction. To improve the substantive quality of policies, you can benefit from a deliberative approach and define a problem or situation thoughtfully, considering characteristics, values, and ethics. This profile helps you to gain a deeper understanding of decision-making processes and the process of policymaking on a metalevel. This profile is offered in collaboration with the Master’s in Philosophy of Science, Technology & Society (PSTS). You can even extend this profile into a unique, two-year double-degree programme in both Public Administration and PSTS.
In this profile, you combine insights from Public Administration and Communication Science, focusing on the interaction between governance and public discourse. You study contemporary issues such as media influence on democracy and communication in policy processes. This profile can be followed as a double degree programme, earning you two diplomas within 1.5 years.
As a graduate of this Master’s, you have acquired specific scientific knowledge, skills, and values.
After completing this Master’s, you:
Not sure if this Master’s is exactly what you’re looking for? Maybe another related master’s at UT suits you better: