A shared purpose? Public administration education on the island of Ireland

Bernadette Connaughton; Karl O'Connor

doi:10.24965/gapp.11609

Authors

Bernadette Connaughton University of Limerick. Department of Politics and Public Administration (Irlanda – Ireland)d) https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6362-5110
Karl O'Connor Ulster University. Centre for Public Administration (Reino Unido – United Kingdom)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24965/gapp.11609

Keywords:

Ireland, Northern Ireland, Public Administration, education, practitioner

Abstract

Objectives: The environment in which public administrators work on the island of Ireland is increasingly confronted by demographic profiles, cross-cutting policy complexity, and so-called ‘perma-crisis’. We argue that the relevance of Public Administration (PA) education is more pertinent than ever for practitioners, and query how, and to what extent, the higher education settings of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (Ireland) have responded with convergent or divergent education and training offerings in higher education institutions and bodies. In Northern Ireland the durability of graduate PA education is reflected in a strong practitioner-academic nexus. In Ireland, PA education has largely developed in interdisciplinary programmes, often led from Political Science departments, and the Institute of Public Administration (Dublin), the main executive education provider to the civil and public service. Methodology: Using secondary sources, the article takes a diachronic approach to explore the development of public administration education in both jurisdictions. Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are informed by similar administrative traditions, but their experience is conditioned by different historical developments in public administration. Results: The evolution of Public Administration as an academic study and the delivery of education/ training programmes is systematically discussed in three distinct phases–origins, partition and separate jurisdictions, modernisation and professionalisation. Further, the article presents an overview of the major drivers, disciplinary features and curriculum design in programmes, North and South, and considers to what extent these programmes are convergent. Conclusion: We identify the primary challenges facing Public Administration and then suggest several initiatives that could be put in place to enhance the quality of education on the island of Ireland.

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Author Biographies

Bernadette Connaughton, University of Limerick. Department of Politics and Public Administration (Irlanda – Ireland)d)

Bernadette Connaughton is an Associate Professor in Public Administration at the Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Limerick. Her main research interests include politico-administrative relations, Ireland’s relationship with the EU, and environmental governance. She has published on those areas and with particular attention to Irish public administration in authored, co-authored, and edited books, and journals.

Karl O'Connor, Ulster University. Centre for Public Administration (Reino Unido – United Kingdom)

Karl O’Connor is Research Director and Professor of Public Administration at the Centre for Public Administration, Ulster University. His main research interests include the role of civil servants in managing conflict and implementing peace processes. He has written on representative bureaucracy theory and policy implementation in the Middle East, Central Asia and Europe. He has a particular interest in Q Methodology.

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