The Public Administration Transfer minor will provide you with the skills and conceptual tools to tackle the grand challenges our complex society faces from a political-administrative point of view.

After the transfer minor you are able to start the Master of Public Administration.

How can governments take action to combat climate change and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals? How can we contribute to the acceptance and effectiveness of such governmental actions? How can governments ensure the protection of data security and privacy rights of citizens in times of rapid technological change? What does it take for governments to keep healthcare affordable and innovative health technologies available for all citizens? And moreover: how can governments at all levels – from local to national to international – collaborate effectively to address these and many other societal challenges? If you are fascinated by the role governments and public organisations play in tackling the grand challenges our society faces today, the Master’s in Public Administration at the University of Twente is the right choice for you. 

The Public Administration Transfer minor consists of two parts: a part with practical tools you need, like Academic Writing and Research methodology, and a part with a subject directly from Public Administration: Modules like Societal Challenges (about immigration) or Public Policy (about individual health influences).

This transfer minor dominantly aims at preparing you for the master of science (MSc) degree programme  Public Administration. Upon successful completion of this minor, you gain direct and unconditional access to this Master programme (see also Entry requirements below).

With a Master degree in Public Administration from the University of Twente, you will be steps ahead of the competition thanks to your thorough understanding of decision-making in the complex network of public and private organizations and the collective action needed to meet public administration challenges.

You will be able to:

- analyse the nature and the causes of social problems;
- understand interests and values of various stakeholders;
- design solutions that are not only feasible and acceptable to various stakeholders, but that also meet the demands of democratic legitimacy.

This minor aims to attract students from universities of applied sciences (HBO) who have the adequate motivation and capacities to complete an English-taught degree programme on university level.

The University of Twente assumes that students who start this transfer minor possess sufficient prior knowledge in mathematics (preferably Wiskunde –A on so-called VWO-level) and that they are sufficiently proficient in English (benchmark score in this regard: IELTS 6.0 or TOEFL 80). Students are supposed to assess themselves whether their competencies in this respect match with the recommended levels.

You need to have completed 120 EC’s from your current related bachelor’s studies before starting this transfer minor.

You need to fulfil all the requirements of the minor of 30 EC within one year to gain access to the master Public Administration.

In order to determine whether your current studies is sufficiently related to public administration, please check: www.doorstroommatrix.nl  and check the Public administration programme website www.utwente.nl/master/pa.

Literature in the field of Public Administration and social methodology, e.g.:

-          Earl Babbie, The Practice of Social Research, 14th edition (look for the student edition available at the study association)

-          Ossewaarde, M. (2013) Theorizing European Societies. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

-          Volti, R. (2024), Society and Technological Change, 9th edition. New York: Worth Publishers.

To be made available before the start of the semester. You are expected to be in Enschede most working days of the week. Our semesters are scheduled as two blocks of 10 weeks.

Courses of the minor:

5 EC Research methodology and descriptive statistics

5 EC Academic Writing

5 EC Introduction to Public Administration (semester 1) or Introduction to Public Policy (semester 2)

15 EC Module Societal Challenges (semester 1) or Module Public Management (semester 2)

Assessment:

-  Assessment of research methodology is a written exam and a practical exercise

-  Assessment of Academic writing is a comprehensive literature review based on scientific articles

-  Assessment of intro to PA and intro to PP is a written exam

-  Assessment of the modules is a combination of written exams, individual practical exercises and group work. Both modules are combined with an advanced statistics course.

N.B. The learning agreement signed by the student and his Examination Board must have reached the UT-contactperson before the enrollment ends.