I recently learnt from a
colleague that the Master of Public Administration programme at Queen Margaret
University in Edinburgh is threatened with closure. This leaves Scotland with
one MPA and three postgraduate programmes in public policy. Therefore the
closure of this programme brings into question the entire existence of public
administration as a scholarly subject in our country. Yet in practice public
administration is booming – there is more that we need skilled public servants
to deliver: the Scottish Parliament is gaining more powers; Scottish
communities are being asked to take a greater role in the design and delivery
of public services; and the demand on our public services has never been
greater. Yet many public service organisations, such as community councils,
charities and local authorities do not have (individually) the budgets to support
Masters level professional development.
In other parts of the UK public administration scholarship is seen
as vital to the economy and to civic society and so is financially supported by
Government’s, For example, the Northern Ireland Executive fund civil servants
to complete the first level of the MPA at Ulster University; the Welsh Government have
funded an ‘All Wales Public Services Graduate Programme‘ with
University of South Wales and the Welsh Centre for Public Policy at Cardiff
University; and in England there are major developments taking place at many
universities including Manchester Metropolitan University, Northumbria
University, Nottingham Trent University, University of Birmingham and
University of Exeter.
Scotland risks being perceived in this context as being hostile to
public administration research and teaching. This runs counter to the ambitions
of the Christie Commission, to the ethos of our Scottish
Government and to the nature of the Scottish Approach to public services. Yet currently we
face the very real prospect that public administration and public policy
scholarship becomes restricted to the rest of the UK. We can only hope that our
elected representatives will take notice and act soon before this becomes the
case.
