It has been suggested that teaching public administration in the UK suffers from disinterested practitioners, disregard from universities and disaffection from academics (Elliott et al 2023). But at the same time it has been found that, through flexibility and responsiveness, PA education continues to thrive (Bottom et al. 2022). What is it that has enabled PA education to survive in such a hostile environment? This research explores the findings of research with PA programme leaders outlining their experiences of teaching public administration in the UK. The research involved an in-depth focus group with a range of programme leaders. The findings highlight some of the challenges but also opportunities to enhance the teaching of PA and in doing so offer lessons for other academics, universities and the UK Association for Public Administration in how educational offerings may be promoted and extended in future.

In the autumn semester of the 2022/23 academic year, we conducted focus group research among the teachers of the Faculty of Public Governance and International Studies of the University of Public Service to map out the effects of the SARS-COVID-19 pandemic on education. As part of this, we asked the lecturers how they came to be members of the university chair and what they consider their main task to be. The evaluation of the conversations showed that the pathways and motivations leading to the position of lecturer are very different, as well as the perceptions of effective education and the role of a university lecturer. In our presentation, we briefly report the goals and personal mission narratives brought to the surface by the group discussions, which led us almost by themselves to the polemic of the essence of university life and academic ethos. Common elements of the self-reflections were the determination to arouse and maintain the interest of the students, the intention to exert influence, and the responsibility for the future and staff of the Hungarian civil service. At the same time, the focus groups threw the ball back to the universities’ courts and their owners (the government, in our case), with open questions such as: What is the task of universities in the 21st century? What do universities expect from their lecturers? What are their jobs and responsibilities, especially for a specialized institution that trains civil servants, soldiers, and police officers at the same time?

The existence of MBA cultures is well established; with such cultures often being posited as a career enhancing feature of such programmes. In addition, within the culture associated with MBA programmes are micro-cults that are shaped by individual schools, such as profit-maximisation or resilience (Orta, 2019). This culture is sustained by international accreditations and a ranking industry that confers elite status on the leading schools. However, does the MBA’s sister qualification for the public sector, hold the same cachet, or should it? After all, it is incumbent on national governments to recruit, develop and retain its brightest and its best. This paper will examine the desirability and feasibility of managing the culture of MPA programmes that produce positive public service outcomes.

Although definitions may lack precision due to variations in terminology used by institutions (alternatives to the MPA label include Masters in Public Policy (MPP), MSc in Public Administration, etc.), the leading MPA programmes in Europe are regarded as being in the West (London School of Economics, Leiden, Hertie in Berlin etc.). However, the cultural capital gained from a MPA programme has not translated into distinct career trajectories. There appears to be two main reasons for this. The first is the existence of training provided outside of the traditional university faculty. The best example of this being the former Ecole National d’Administration (ENA), which has historically brought its own elite value development and culture to public administration in France. This kind of elite training has proved to have more international appeal than MPA programmes, at least in Europe. The second reason is the fact that many governments will sponsor students to undertake managerial development, which may culminate in a MPA programme, but with the caveat that upon graduation, students return to their sponsoring government. An example of this is Romania’s Young Professional Scheme. A third reason is that administrative cultures, shaped in turn by societal and political cultures, resist the dynamic, frame-breaking approach to leadership espoused by both MPA and MBA courses. In short, graduates quickly give up trying to apply what they have learnt as it goes against the prevailing institutional contexts. The aim of this paper is to analyse the cultural attractiveness of MPA programmes when compared to the MBA and what MPA programme designers can do to maximise the potential in terms of content and the ‘added value’ that a MPA should bring where reform remains high on political agendas.

The paper considers the following. First of all, while there is no ‘right way’ to develop public administrators; there may be an opportunity to learn from successful MBA programmes in relation to course cohesion and despite the considerable differences in curricula. Rhodes (2016) refers to the craft skills of the senior public administrator; skills that are very difficult to ‘teach’. This difficulty notwithstanding, the push for ‘leadership’ in academia has been a preoccupation over the last two decades, at least. Before that, the New Public Management held sway and the flight to Business Schools began. While this is well documented elsewhere, it arguably marked the end of the UK tradition of the civil service ‘generalist’ (Thomas, 2012). The paper also surveys recent changes to public service developments by comparing the UK and France. Both countries are considered exemplars in public service reforms yet stemming from very different traditions and approaches. Although not a direct imitation of the ENA, the UK government dissolved the National School of Government in 2012 while the ENA closed it’s doors at the end of 2021 and was replaced by the National Institute of Public Service (INPS). Finally, the paper will examine the content of MPA programmes in both countries to provide the basis for a research design to evaluate the cultural value of such programmes. If MBA programmes are marked by rituals and a rejection of academic theory (Orta, 2016), does the same hold true for the MPA participant and what can MPA providers learn from this?

Launched in November 2022, ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence-based chatbot, can generate coherent, informative, human-like responses and have natural language conversations with users. In the higher education sector, ChatGPT has been met with both excitement and scepticism. On the one hand, some educational practitioners recommend engaging students with such tools to enrich the learning experience rather than prohibiting them, as it is believed that ChatGPT will inevitably become an integral part of higher education. In this context, it is believed that ChatGPT can help students develop various skills such as reading, writing, information analysis, critical thinking and problem-solving, generation of practice problems, etc., which are relevant to public administration practice and research. However, there are likely to be multiple challenges associated with ChatGPT, including copyright, biases, equity, over-reliance by students, and data privacy and security. The aim of the paper is to investigate the perception of ChatGPT by students of public administration. Findings show that ChatGPT seems to be an attractive platform for public administration students. Students have generally positive perceptions of ChatGPT in relation to different study issues, suggesting the further impact of using ChatGPT in concrete public administration study issues is recommended to enhance learning from students' perspective. However, students feel less effective in developing and improving critical thinking, creativity and personal communication skills. Accordingly, the findings of this paper add to the existing scientific knowledge and facilitate evidence-based policy-making, which is crucial for higher education in the future.