DCU School of Law and Government have launched a new MSc in Public Policy:
The global financial crisis has exposed flaws in the policy making system in Ireland and elsewhere. Part of this relates to the technical capacity of policy makers to do effective public policy analysis. This is something recognised by the Irish state and the European Union as well as other international bodies as they attempt to increase the number of professionally qualified policy specialists working for them.
In response DCU is offering a bespoke, interdisciplinary course designed to suit the needs of a new generation of policy makers. It will be hosted in the School of Law and Government, but builds on links across the University and is a key part of a new Institute for Innovative Government (IIG).
This is a new type of professional degree – in many ways a parallel for those in the policy/government sector to an MBA in the commercial sector. It will have an intellectual base and methodological rigour that reflect the needs of a sector facing more nuanced and complex challenges.
6 replies on “New DCU MSc in Public Policy”
‘Must Read’ of the week; v. relevant to public policy:
a snippet:
‘The economy doesn’t make stuff anymore. That much you know. So what does it make?
It makes assholes.
The Great Enterprise of this age is the Asshole Industry.
And that’s not just a tragedy. It is something approaching the moral equivalent of a crime. For it demolishes human potential in precisely the same way as locking someone innocent up, and throwing away the key.’
https://medium.com/bad-words/the-asshole-factory-71ff808d887c
I would be interested to know how the Lecturers in the DCU School of Law and Government are going about assessing what disciplines and areas of expertise are currently missing from what is currently taught to huge numbers of our civil servants by the IMI in Sandyford??
I am also somewhat aghast at the idea of Lawyers telling people how to run Governments. Surely it should be Governments/Parliaments devising laws for the lawyers to grapple with rather than the other way around?
We are already suffering the horror of a class of professional politicians with little or no experience of working in the difficult reaches of the private sector, with little or no experience of implementing organisational reform or targeting innovation. These ignoramuses are complemented by a Civil Service devoid of expertise and drenched in the IMI’s theorising.
DCU would do better to create a think tank where the insights of a thinkers from diverse backgrounds could be synthesised rather than creating an MSc in public policy. Of course, think tanks don’t generate tuition fees.
I would have associated education for members of the public service more with the IPA than with the IMI.
It strikes me that some competition from the wider higher education system is a good thing. Looking in from outside the public service, the whole IPA set-up has always seemed to me to be a bit insular.
@BeeCeeTee
I may have got my acronyms mixed up!
Not forgetting the ESRI!
http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/is-collaboration-or-competition-best-strategy-for-economists-1.2190659
“The global financial crisis has exposed flaws in the policy making system in Ireland and elsewhere. Part of this relates to the technical capacity of policy makers to do effective public policy analysis. This is something recognised by the Irish state and the European Union as well as other international bodies as they attempt to increase the number of professionally qualified policy specialists working for them.”
If this is the case, and there can be little doubt about the fact, I would agree with ZNL that the lead might best have been taken by economists across both academia and the private sector. But, failing this (and nothing seems to be on the horizon), the initiative by DCU seems worthwhile.
The starting point must, however, surely be putting across to students the full implications of being in a monetary union that draws most of its inspiration from Germany cf.
http://www.ecfr.eu/page/-/ECFR49_GERMANY_BRIEF.pdf
Listening to the “Spring statements” in the Dáil just now, there were hints that this might be happening.
Does anyone know anything the Public Policy master in UCD?