[Edit this paragraph] First, the emergence of MPA education
The emergence of MPA education is closely related to the development of public administration (or management). As a kind of professional education, public management first came into being in Germany in the18th century, and trained specialized management talents to meet the needs of Prussia's national management and economic development at that time. But it is the United States that put public management into practice as a professional degree education. As early as the beginning of19th century, the United States began to brew public administration or management education. By 1887, Wilson published his paper "Research on Administration", which is generally regarded by academic circles as the beginning of American public administration education. 19 1 1 set up a "public service training school" in new york, USA, which trained staff for the research bureau of new york City and inspired a large number of universities to offer public management courses. 1924 "Public Service Training School" moved to Syracuse University and merged with the newly established Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. At the same time, it launched the first MPA project in the United States and set up a comprehensive education and training course in public management.
The development process of American MPA education can be divided into three stages:
1. The period of establishment and development was before 1950s.
During this period, the development of public management education in universities was slow. By 1960, only 50 universities in the United States offer courses in public administration or management.
2. In the 1960s and early 1970s, due to the increasing demand of American governments at all levels for vocational training of civil servants, the teaching of public administration courses in universities began to develop rapidly. By 1973, there are10/institutions in the United States offering public management courses. Diversification is the most remarkable feature of American MPA education in this period.
3. After 1970s, American MPA education entered a period of standardized development, and the scale of education continued to expand. By 1995, there are 232 institutions providing public management education. The most important feature of M PA education in this period is that related institutions began to strengthen contact, learn from each other, and establish a unified MPA curriculum standard. 1978, the national association of administrative colleges and universities (NA SPAA) was established, which was composed of all institutions providing MPA education. An academic committee is established within the Association to determine the same or core courses of MPa education. The academic Committee of the Federation also regularly evaluates the M PA education of its member institutions. The evaluation results were published by US News and World Report, which is the ranking of American MPA educational institutions. There are three kinds of evaluation results: qualified, unqualified and improved within a time limit. This result not only has social influence, but also has been recognized by the government. Those who fail will lose the right to continue to hold MPA education, and those who improve within a time limit will stop enrolling students for one year and reserve their qualifications for re-evaluation.
In France, the French National School of Administration was founded in 1945, which is an institution for training senior executives and belongs to a series of universities. Influenced by French tradition, its graduates are not awarded degrees, but the quality and level are not inferior to MPA in the United States. In order to meet the requirements of internationalization, the French National School of Administration decided to reform and award relevant degrees to graduates. The development of MPA education in Britain is more prominent in Europe, and the more influential institutions are the School of Political Economy of London University, the School of Public Policy of Birmingham University and Oxford University.
The development of M PA education in Europe and America and its successful experience soon attracted the attention of other countries in the world. These countries draw lessons from the experience of the United States and have established M PA professional education with their own characteristics. Now, Canada, Australia and some Asian countries, such as South Korea, also have related degree courses. With the help of the United States, Israel has started the M PA degree education of 1999. More generally, M PA education in relevant universities in Europe and America is open to other countries in the world, attracting international students from all over the world and indeed cultivating a group of foreign senior managers.
[Edit this paragraph] Second, the basic framework of MPA education
(A) the positioning of MPA
MPA education is a kind of general education, and its goal is to train advanced applied talents in public affairs management and public policy research and analysis, and to train professional managers, leaders, policy analysts and (middle and senior) with modern public management theory and public policy quality, advanced analysis methods and technologies for government agencies and non-profit non-governmental public institutions. The training targets are on-the-job personnel with practical experience in government agencies or non-government institutions. This training goal determines that we should pay attention to the cultivation of practical ability and quality in the training process, and the teaching content should face the practical problems faced by the society, especially in the field of public affairs.
(B) MPA course
MPA courses are mainly set according to MPA training objectives. According to the characteristics of MPA education, the curriculum of MPA teaching in various countries has the following main characteristics:
First, the top management requires both theoretical and practical training, and changes the curriculum of general research-oriented graduate students, which focuses on theory, description and introduction, to provide students with space to develop their leadership skills.
Second, the policy analysis methods and skills to solve complex social problems provide qualitative and quantitative professional analysis tools that can only be obtained through university education. Let students have a higher professional quality, a higher level of ability and quality, and master the qualitative and quantitative analysis tools of this major.
Third, professional knowledge and skills are oriented to professional fields, and each student has his own chosen professional field, thus making it related to public management and public policy. MPA courses are mainly divided into three categories: the first category is the core curriculum, mainly the theoretical basis, analytical methods and skills of public management and policy research; The second category is elective courses, that is, courses that students can choose according to their own professional fields and main direction, as well as their personal needs and hobbies; The third category is the practice and discussion of public management and public policy. Through these courses, students can apply the knowledge and methods they have learned to the practice of public management and public policy, and gain the ability to analyze, solve and manage problems in practical management.
(C) MPA teaching methods
At this stage, the most widely used teaching methods in colleges and universities mainly include the following:
1. Case education Case teaching is the most widely used teaching method in MPA teaching. Teachers provide a typical management problem and policy problem, and then provide students with the background of the problem, pointing out the difficulties faced by the problem and possible solutions, so that students can make choices through their own thinking and analysis.
2. Simulation teaching Simulation teaching is also one of the commonly used teaching methods in MPA teaching. It is to set a certain working situation in the classroom, and then let students play different roles, and carry out specific activities and work in this situation, so as to experience different feelings at work.
3. Field observation plays an important role in MPA teaching. It is to let students personally go to the work site of government agencies to feel the working environment, understand the work situation, get in touch with administrative personnel, learn their ways of doing things and methods of dealing with problems, so as to increase their experience.
4. Lecture MPA teaching is different from traditional lectures. It pays little attention to the teaching of theory, but to the combination of theory and practice. It requires that the teaching content should closely focus on the daily management and work of government agencies and emphasize practical application.
5. Practice In the process of learning, students should not only accept rich theoretical knowledge, but also do a lot of exercises, especially those courses with strong practical operation, such as quantitative analysis, statistics and policy analysis. You must go through a lot of practice to master it. Practice can consolidate what students have learned and improve their comprehensive analysis and practical operation ability.
[Edit this paragraph] Third, the impact of MPA education
Because the training goal of M PA is consistent with the employment destination of graduates, and the needs of society and government make the employment prospects of MPA graduates very broad. Government departments at all levels, non-governmental public institutions, institutions and state-owned enterprises are all employment fields for MPA graduates.
In the past 20 years, the proportion of top managers with MPA degrees in the United States has been rising. It is estimated that 10% ~ 20% of the civil servants employed by the federal government have MPA degrees. When the government recruits civil servants, some positions require MPA degrees.
In France, a considerable number of graduates of the National School of Administration are senior civil servants in government departments. In the past 50 years, the hospital has delivered a large number of excellent senior managers for the government. According to the statistics of 1996, 80% of the 4,200 graduates still working in the college are working in the government or public sector, 1900 are senior civil servants, 30 are members of the House of Representatives, 10 are senators, and there are a number of ambassadors. The current President Jacques Chirac and former Prime Minister Juppe are both graduates of the college. The French National School of Administration is therefore known as the "cradle of senior civil servants", which has had a great impact on the administration of the whole country.
[Edit this paragraph] Fourth, the influence and role of MPA education in China.
Although MPA education has just been introduced into China, it is far from the proper training scale at present, but it is developing rapidly and expanding in scale and scope, which will have a great impact and function on the training of civil servants, the construction of cadres and the development of higher administrative education in China.
First of all, it will become an important way to train civil servants in China. Judging from the current situation, the education level of civil servants in China is not high as a whole. According to the statistics at the end of 1999, among 54 100 civil servants in China, only about 52% have college education or above. At the same time, the knowledge structure is not reasonable, even those who have received higher education are mostly single professional education, and modern administrative knowledge, especially the knowledge of finance, taxation, finance, law and macro-decision-making ability required by market economy, is generally weak. Carrying out M PA education, so that in-service civil servants can systematically learn modern administrative management theory and improve administrative management level in combination with practice, will help to optimize the academic structure, knowledge structure and professional structure of civil servants and play a positive role in building a high-quality and professional civil servant team.
Secondly, it will be an important guarantee to promote the reform of government institutions and establish a public management system that is compatible with the market economy. China's current public management system and theory are relatively behind the pace of reform and opening up. From the perspective of power operation, public power is too centralized, lacking the institutional guarantee of democratic supervision and the theory, understanding and skills in this respect; From the perspective of function exercise, the functions of public organizations are unclear, the institutions are bloated, the levels overlap and the efficiency is low; Ideologically, the idea of official standard prevails, and the awareness of law and science is weak. MPA education will promote the research on the basic operating mechanism, basic functions and personnel system of the government and other public management departments in the new economic and political environment. Through education, training and research, the system, theory and people's quality have been completely updated and developed, which supports the deepening of administrative reform and the improvement of management performance, makes the government reform get practical results, and truly establishes a public management system that is suitable for the market economy.
Thirdly, it will become a positive driving force for the development of higher administrative education in China. For a long time, there has been no independent management discipline in China. Although China has resumed the research and teaching of administrative management since the mid-1980s, after nearly 20 years' development, the academic research, discipline construction and personnel training of this discipline have made remarkable progress, but it is far from meeting the needs of establishing a public management system adapted to the market economy and training high-quality civil servants. MPA education, through a lot of theoretical research and teaching practice, will greatly promote the establishment and development of administrative discipline in Chinese universities, and eventually develop into a higher administrative education system with China characteristics that meets the needs of the socialist market economy management system. It plays an important role in cultivating high-level compound administrative talents to meet the needs of economic and social development in the new century.