Nordic Master Programme in Innovative Governance and Public Management aims to challenge the traditional contents and sector-oriented learning approaches that are typically applied in the field of public administration and public policy. It brings together elements from social sciences and engineering, combining the strengths of soft and hard applied sciences, resulting to a spirit of solution-focused and resource-oriented entrepreneurialism, interdisciplinary and close relations to society. It provides the students a unique learning environment enabling them to come up with smart solutions and sustainable learning outcomes in the field of public administration and management, in the contexts of public-private partnership, public value creation, co-production and deliberative democracy as well as innovation systems, digitalization and smart solutions.
The programme equips graduates with excellent learning and networking skills. They will be able to understand and manage complex networks, service production and value chains. These skills and competencies are particularly relevant given the changing nature of the public and private sectors; such as the blurring of boundaries between the two, the pressure for responding swiftly to societal demands, as well as the enormous socio-economic and political challenges facing European societies in years to come.
Learning Outcomes
Upon the successful completion of the program, students will acquire the following knowledge, skills and competencies.
Knowledge
- Critically assess the key challenges facing public service provision in knowledge-based societies, with a specific focus on the Nordic countries
- Discuss the extent through which current theories, models and approaches towards public sector governance and management are adequate to solve existing problems and dilemmas
- Compare and contrast specific public governance and managerial/leadership approaches within the Nordic countries
- Apply key concepts emanating from the fields of public policy & management, organizational change, leadership, learning, innovation, and engineering education to real situations (case studies)
- Evaluate the effectiveness of policy schemes, interventions and approaches in the light of theories and models from public management, organizational studies, innovation and learning.
Skills
- Recognize and comprehend the effects of broader societal changes ? digitization, urbanization, aging, etc. ? in public sector reform and change
- Reflect on the importance attributed to contextual dimensions (e.g. culture and institutions) in reform trajectories and processes of change and resistance
- Develop and elaborate novel and innovative solutions (e.g. through design thinking) that are capable of addressing some of the challenges facing the public sector in the Nordic countries
- Master the ability to think across disciplinary fields and/or knowledge domains
- Grasp the importance of, and the existing mechanisms for, collaborating across multiple sectors of the economy
General competence
- Be able to formulate precise and relevant academic research problems
- Be able to work both as a part of a team as well as independently
- Be able to write both an academic paper as well as policy/evaluation report
- Be able to collaborate with and address multiple stakeholder audiences; academics, policy makers, regional actors across the public and private sectors, etc.
- Be able to assess, interpret and critic selected domains of public policy and/or management from the perspective of public governance/management, organisational change/leadership, innovation and learning theories
- Be able to synthesise considerable amounts of data and apply relevant methods and theories to a specific public policy domain
- Be able to undertake independent scientific work
- Be competent in undertaking highly sophisticated analytical tasks within the public and private sectors as well as R&D-related activities (employability)