Public Administration Education. How Is It Perceived by Practitioners?

This paper presents preliminary findings of an ongoing research survey of 386 senior local and 59 central public administration practitioners in Britain, and used a modified survey instrument initially used at Kentucky State and Indiana State Universities. After setting out some of the similarities and differences between public administration degree programs in the United States and Britain, the paper presents preliminary data based on the first 50 mail responses. The research sought to determine whether British public administrators are familiar with programs being offered in Britain, what core beliefs they hold as to the study and practice of public administration, what managerial skills they consider most important, what level of importance they assign to various components of a public administration program, how relevant public administrative expertise is vis-a-vis other public sector needs, and how relevant research activity is to actual practice. Nine data tables present information on participant profiles; how often training programs were used; how familiar survey participants were with programs; how familiar they were with public administration journals; attitudinal orientation toward public service professionalism; and perceived importance of managerial skills, of courses taught, of saliency of public policy issues. (CH)