Executive MPA: Curriculum
The quality of the Executive MPA programme is rooted in two principles: interdisciplinarity and practical application. The programme combines economics and social sciences to further students' understanding of complex governance challenges and management solutions. The participants work on international case studies and discuss phenomena against the background of their own work experience. Experts from all sectors regularly share current issues and discuss challenges and possible solutions with the students.
The flexibility of both time frame and content enables each student to adapt the programme to his or her individual needs. The programme offers professionals both sound theoretical knowledge and hands-on management skills, using modern teaching methods.
Compulsory
Compulsory module – 9 days and 9 ECTS total
The contemporary state and public policy-making are undergoing profound changes: New forms of regulation and governance are emerging, and a variety of actors are contributing to this process. Networks, various forms of cooperation, and partnerships are developing at different political levels and across the private, public and voluntary sectors. Traditional forms of (hierarchical) 'government' are losing significance; new forms of (horizontal) political regulation and policy-making are emerging: 'governance' – with and without government. At the same time, states in Europe as well as stakeholders from civil society and the private sector are embedded in the European Union. Shaping governance and explaining public policy is impossible without understanding the actors, institutions and processes behind the making of public policy, as well as the potential and limitations of governance.
By the end of the module, students will be able to understand, analyse and debate key challenges of 21st century governance and policy-making. Students will have learned to engage with academic debates, theoretical arguments and methodological approaches from an interdisciplinary perspective, and will understand how collectively binding decisions are made, contested and influenced across sectors and levels of governance.
Participants choose 3 of the following courses:
- Bureaucracies and evidence-informed policymaking
- Designing, leading and growing organisations
- European Union governance
- Policymaking: actors, institutions and processes
Compulsory module – 9 days and 9 ECTS total
This module gives students an overview of the key challenges faced in modern management, leadership and decision-making. It trains students’ ability to cope with these issues in a future leadership role. Focusing on both underlying theories, main concepts and methodological tools, the module introduces students to the practicability and the pitfalls of central methods and reforms in the context of public administration in general and of financial management in particular. Students must also face questions of judgements and self-reflection in leadership; they must confront the implications of data consumption and visualise it in an informed and competent way.
Upon successful completion of the module, students will have gained the ability to understand and use key management tools. They will have honed their diagnostic and judgement skills in leadership; grasped how budgets are drafted, evaluated, negotiated and used to achieve certain political goals; and addressed one of the key challenges of decision-making in this day and age – how to trust the numbers, data and quantitative results put before them.
Participants choose 3 of the following courses:
- Strategic and performance management
- Power and influence: leadership in action
- Budgeting and priority-setting in government
- When to trust the numbers: informed data consumption
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Choose 5 portfolio electives – 15 days and 15 ECTS total
Students choose five electives that allow them to specialize in an area of governance, policy and management, or broaden their understanding to a different field of public policy, governance or analytical tools. Electives take place either in person or remotely online.
Courses are clustered in four fields:
1. Management and Leadership electives focus on organizational design, change management, leadership skills, and management tools.
2. Digitalisation and Governance of Artificial Intelligence electives focus on digitalization in various sectors including questions of regulation and governance, and on the use and implications of artificial intelligence tools across sectors.
3. Policy Analysis electives focus on specific policy fields, including social policy, climate & sustainability, economics, and inequality, among other topics.
4. Governance electives focus on topical questions of governance including concepts of multi-level governance, conflict and crisis management, and global governance challenges.
Portfolio electives focus on deepening as well as the use and transfer of knowledge. These electives encourage students to apply prior training and analytical skills to the hitherto unfamiliar; train students in developing new approaches to the hitherto familiar; hone independence and adaptability to new academic and analytical debates, tools and challenges; foster constant interaction in class with cutting-edge academic discourse, pertinent policy debate, and technical skill-sets.
By the end of the module, students will have built an elective portfolio that deepens or extends their empirical, theoretical, analytical or policy relevant training.
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3 compulsory trainings – 6 days and 6 ECTS total
The professional development module aims at fostering participants’ professional development by conveying skills, tools and analytical perspectives as well as offering opportunities to learn about governance challenges and reflect on the application of skills in a specific institutional context.
The skills courses put practical application centre-stage and aim to strengthen students’ soft skills. Students choose three skills courses out of a selection that may include but is not limited to: negotiation and mediation, policy writing, political communication and scenario-building. The objective is to equip students with interpersonal or transferable skills that fit their lifelong learning aspirations.
Examples of current trainings can be found in the course catalogue.
Compulsory workshop – 4 days and 3 ECTS total
The workshop will give students the opportunity to tackle, in small teams, the demands of a real-world policy project, and to employ and refine their professional and analytical skills in the context of a local or international study visit. Each workshop will focus on a topical challenge of governance, public policy or public management, and will visit the local, national or supranational setting in which this challenge plays out and is addressed. Projects and destinations will vary every year so as to offer participants hands-on experience, direct interactions with practitioners, and insights into the day-to-day workings of organisations across sectors and levels of governance.
Examples of previous workshops and study visits include a Berlin workshop that familiarised participants with the workings of the German government and ministries, and a Brussels workshop that allowed participants to experience the EU’s institutions and decision-making first-hand.
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Master’s thesis workshop – 2 ECTS
Students participate in a Master`s thesis research training when starting with their Master`s thesis research.
The workshop is divided in three parts:
- finding a suitable topic, theoretical framework, and research question,
- methods and data for the research project, and
- presenting and discussing a preliminary research design.
Upon completion of the Master`s thesis research training, students will be prepared to work on their written master thesis.
Master’s thesis research – 16 ECTS
In their Master’s thesis, students demonstrate that they are able to carry out a research project independently and can apply their theoretical knowledge and analytical skills to address an issue of practical relevance in modern governance, public policy or public management.
Students will use the knowledge gained in Modules 1-4, to analyse a real-life problem from a professional organisational or policy context, and to make proposals for possible solutions.
Students are encouraged to conduct their research in collaboration with a “practice partner”—a private, public or third sector institution.