Conference Agenda

Education in public administration has an important role in preparing future public administrators to face more complex governance problems, especially in developing states. This is because the need for effective public administration grows even more with a change in world economies. The present research investigated how public administration programmes in developing states are adapted to address local governance issues concerning producing quality public servants who can handle different governance problems. The researchers systematically reviewed the literature on 45 articles, of which 18 were eventually sampled and used. The analysis employed research from 2005 to 2025 and incorporated evidence of public administration curriculum design and challenges for developing nations to implement international frameworks. The results indicated that developed nations highly valued governance theory, policy analysis and public sector management. Conversely, developing nations emphasize practical application to counter corruption and inefficiency. We also discovered that developing nations struggle to adapt global standards to socio-political environments. Incorporating global curricula in local environments is critical in developing productive public servants in the developing world. The study emphasizes building adaptive, multidisciplinary curricula in response to the global best practices and conditions. Shortages of resources and political instability were some of the issues in syncing global frameworks with institutions of governance at the local level. Public administration education involves striking a balance between theory-based knowledge and experience pertinent to the challenges in each region

In the face of digital transformation and emerging governance models, continuous professional development becomes essential for equipping public managers with new competencies. These include digital literacy, data-driven decision-making, cybersecurity awareness, agile leadership, and cross-sector collaboration. This paper explores the role of executive and mid-career education in fostering lifelong learning and enhancing managerial competencies within public administration, ensuring professionals are prepared to face complex, technology-driven governance challenges.

This study highlights the effectiveness of project-based learning (PBL) and problem-based learning (PrBL) pedagogical methodologies in executive courses and postgraduate programs. These methodologies ensure that learning is directly applicable to real-world public sector challenges, fostering a practice-oriented and solution-driven approach. The training context is potentiated by using innovative digital learning strategies employed to enhance both teaching and learning experiences, addressing the geographical dispersion of public managers across Portugal while ensuring accessibility, flexibility, and engagement in professional development. The main goal of this research is to examine the impact of these educational pedagogies and digital tools to contribute to a broader discussion on how executive education can profile the future of public administration, equipping professionals with adaptive skills to lead in an evolving policy and governance scenery.

The modernisation and digital transformation of public administrations toward holistic and sustainable governance require public sector professionals equipped with interdisciplinary and future-oriented competencies. This transformation involves a diverse set of stakeholders—state, market, and societal actors, who bring their resources, expertise, and practices to shape public services that respond to citizens’ needs and generate public value. Among the emerging approaches in this context, co-creation has become central, enabling shared responsibility in policy and service design and acting as a critical mechanism for embedding citizen engagement into evidence-based policymaking processes. To support the implementation of co-creation and other innovation-driven practices in public governance, higher education curricula must equip learners with the competencies needed to navigate complex challenges at the intersection of technology, institutional change, and social impact. This study contributes to the development of such curricula by applying a conceptual model that positions co-creation as an integral component of evidence-based policymaking and identifies six key dimensions – co-creation, ethics, evidence-based decision-making, sustainability, AI, and legal & regulation – as foundational for modern public administration education. Using a dual-method research design, the study combines a systematic literature review of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary public administration programs with a taxonomy-based analysis of public sector job vacancies in six EU countries. It explores how competencies are framed in job descriptions across three domains: AI & Data Science, Digital Transformation, and Societal Engagement. The findings reveal significant gaps between current academic offerings and the evolving demands of the public sector, particularly in relation to integrated, transdisciplinary skill sets. The paper concludes with recommendations for curriculum innovation, contributing to the design of future-ready programs that support citizen-centred, AI-enabled, and sustainability-oriented public governance.

This paper focuses specifically on early-career officers in the Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS), the most prestigious and influential cadre within Pakistan’s civil bureaucracy. This paper seeks to make a modest but important contribution using a multi-method approach to empirically examine whether Pakistan’s top-tier civil servants – those in the PAS – are being prepared adequately for the tasks the state expects them to perform. Drawing on data from the educational and professional backgrounds of PAS officers over the past decade, as recorded by the Civil Services Academy, and a detailed review of the training curriculum at the Academy, the article argues for a skills and competencies gap among the inducted officers. The study signifies the role of public administration, management and policy education for the administrators of the country, mainly in their early 10-15 years in the field. Furthermore, we did a critical analysis of civil service reform proposals from 2008 to 2025 in the areas of recruitment and training to determine the direction of reforms around curriculum. The paper concludes by arguing for the skill and competency gap- which needs to be addressed primarily at the recruitment stage so that training curriculum can act as a bridge for preparing officers for the field who can operate in the unique and dynamic social, political, and economic context of Pakistan. By situating Pakistan’s experiences within the global discourse on public administration education and curriculum for civil servants, the paper explores the importance of evidence-based and context-aware reforms in a developing country struggling with service provision at the grassroots.