Bringing science to practice: Designing an integrated academic education program for public affairs

• Published date: 01 November 2020
• Author: Arco Timmermans
• Date: 01 November 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2182

ACADEMIC PAPER

Bringing science to practice: Designing an integrated academic

education program for public affairs

Arco Timmermans

Institute of Public Administration, Faculty of

Governance & Global Affairs, Leiden

University, Leiden, The Netherlands

Correspondence

Arco Timmermans, Institute of Public

Administration, Faculty of Governance &

Global Affairs, Leiden University, Leiden,

The Netherlands.

Email: a.timmermans@fgga.leidenuniv.nl

The ongoing spread of public affairs as an organizational function calls for a more

integrated and systematic approach to teaching program development in this field. In

many countries we see a process of “publicization,”with increasing visibility of lobby-

ing behavior and emphasis on accountability. Also in many countries, the reality of

public affairs has become more complex as new players and issues enter the public

and political arenas. There is more attention within and outside the community of

practitioners to the way in which public affairs can move on in professionalization

and solidify itself in the political and social environment. The way forward is to fur-

ther build a recognizable academic domain that can help shape and consolidate the

knowledge identity of public affairs and make public affairs activities more clearly evi-

dence based. This contribution presents what may be called an “ideal”academic edu-

cation program on public affairs, to be embedded and taught at the graduate level.

For this to be grounded well, it is necessary to re-address the concept of public

affairs and consider the main elements of the body of knowledge and skills that can

inform further education development. On this basis, three learning lines are distin-

guished for a modular approach to teach an integrated graduate program on public

affairs in which the boundary spanning roles of a next generation of public affairs

professionals can be performed effectively and responsibly.

1|INTRODUCTION

This contribution presents what may be called an “ideal”program of

public affairs at the graduate level. The adjective “ideal”is meant to

stimulate developments in this direction. The line of argument

towards this public affairs program begins with the concept of public

affairs and the main components of the body of knowledge and skills.

The concept and content of public affairs are first re-addressed to cre-

ate a vantage point for developing a truly integrated higher education

program. This is necessary because in many countries, interest repre-

sentation and lobbying are exposed to “publicization,”that is, ever

increasing public visibility and accountability. The challenging task of

maintaining a strong and legitimate position in society has become a

central element of public affairs, next to lobbying in the policy pro-

cess. This is what is giving the concept of public affairs its fuller mean-

ing today. Moving to education, three learning lines can be

distinguished, based on the main components of the body of

knowledge. And next, within these three learning lines, modules

(or courses, pick the term) flesh out the body of knowledge and skills.

This contribution ends by emphasizing the national or local context of

public affairs education.

2|PUBLIC AFFAIRS AS A FUNCTIONALLY

INTEGRATIVE CONCEPT

Not all can be contained in a definition, but it must be appreciated

that in order to achieve the goals of public affairs, strategy and activi-

ties require systematic preparation. For this reason, public affairs can

be defined as the systematically prepared repertoire of activities devel-

oped by an organization for influencing the policy process and its position

in society. In this way of defining the concept, the element of system-

atic preparation that many practitioners will recognize (even if some

may not) also pertains to its evidence base and ways of learning how

Received: 11 December 2019Revised: 12 March 2020Accepted: 7 May 2020

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2182

J Public Affairs. 2020;20:e2182.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa© 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd1of10

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2182