ObjectivesThe course will develop your understanding, competence and confidence as a manager and enable you to specialise through your choice of dissertation topic. It provides strong links between academic theory and management practice. The course also examines current challenges in public service. The University has a long tradition of providing high quality Public Service Management courses and has successfully delivered similar Masters-level Public Service Management programmes for over 20 years. Brief Overview: Award is targeted at Public Sector Professionals wishing to advance their careers within the sector
Entry requirementsThis postgraduate management programme is designed for individuals working in or with public service related organisations.
Academic titleMSc/PgD/PgC Public Service Management
Course descriptionCourse Content
Year One (Postgraduate Certificate)
* Needs and Resources
* Professionals, Managers and Organisations
* Strategy and Leadership
Year Two (Postgraduate Diploma)
You will study the equivalent of three full modules.
* Public Policy and Practice
* Partnership, Improvement and Delivery
* Conducting Research
Year Three (MSc)
You will complete a dissertation on a topic you have selected.
How To Study
During the Certificate and Diploma stage of the course you will spend five to six hours per week in lectures, seminars and tutorials. The work you will complete outside this time includes assignments, guided reading and research work, which will lead to your dissertation. During the first and second years you will be assessed through assignments and attendance is one afternoon and evening per week. The third year is assessed entirely through the dissertation.
Career prospects
This course is particularly relevant if you are a manager or aspire to a position of significant managerial responsibility in a public, quasi-public or voluntary organisation.
Additional Information
MODULES STUDIED
Organisation and Management in the Public Sector
The module aim is to introduce students to the basic approaches to understanding organisations and management within the public sector; and to the planning and implementation of human resource strategies. The module will cover the main approaches to understanding organisations and human resource management in the public sector. Much of the material will be generic to all organisations but the module will stress the particular features and challenges of managing in the public sector.
Resourcing the Public Sector
This module deals with the economics and financing of the public sector. It introduces you to the key ideas in the application of economic analysis to public management and the budgetary process in British government. The course also covers financial planning and management within government departments and decentralised bodies.
Strategic and Resource Management in the Public Sector
The module is concerned with ideas of strategic planning and the concepts that underpin resource allocation in the public sector. Strategic planning is a distinctively different process in the public sector compared with the private sector, nevertheless some concepts developed in the private sector do have value in the public sector context. This module will emphasis how the politics, strong values and resource constraints of the public sector pose particularly challenging issues in the development, formation and implementation of strategic plans. The other part of the module will deal with resource allocation mechanisms in the public sector, in particular how the allocation of resources can meet the objectives of equality and equity in service provision, and assess the outcomes resulting from the adoption of alternative resource allocation strategies.
Public Policy
This module endeavours to combine academic insights into contemporary developments in the public sector with a strong practice orientation. In particular the module focuses on the new institutions and structures of UK governance, recent developments in the health service and local government, and the implications for public managers at all levels. The theoretical components of the module will include the new theories of governance, ideas of multi-governance in the UK, theories of the policy process, ideas of network management and theories of collaboration and cross-agency working. The less theoretical topics to be covered will include: the structure and history of the NHS and local government, the National Assembly for Wales, the new intergovernmental relations of the UK, the European Union, and international trends in public sector management.
Effectiveness and Improvement
The issue of public service improvement is currently top of the political agenda. A number of changes have been introduced in public sector organisations such as Clinical Governance, Total Quality Management, the Wales Programme for Improvement and the European Excellence Model. The aim of the module is to equip students to understand and assess a range of approaches to managing and improving performance. The module also examines methods of evaluating the performance of organisations. We will consider the importance of stakeholder evaluation and analyse techniques such as the Balanced Scorecard. Performance Improvement is a key part of the module. Issues involved in developing performance indicators and targets for aspects of performance such as outcomes, efficiency, service quality and equity will be examined.
Conducting Research and Independent Study
The aim of this module is to assist students to develop a good grasp of the nature of social and policy research and of how to construct research-based arguments; be familiar with the main methods of applied research and consultancy; and be able to plan, execute and write up a piece of research that meets the standard of a project and dissertation at coursework masters level. But the emphasis will be on preparing a policy-based dissertation rather than on training students as expert researchers. The module will cover the basics of how to conduct a small scale research project and write a dissertation. It will cover case study research, basic quantitative and survey techniques, qualitative methods and report presentation and writing.
The independent study part of the module will involve directed study comprising library-based reading and analysis and/or empirical research in the social sciences, on a topic chosen by the student in consultation with the supervisor, usually on a topic related to their professional or work experience.
Dissertation
The dissertation involves an analysis of a significant problem faced by your employing organisation. The dissertation demands a combination of academic rigour and practical relevance. Students receive personal tuition from an academic staff member who will provide specialist advice on your dissertation.
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