The Place of Public Administration in a University Education
| Published date | 01 March 1949 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1949.tb02662.x |
| Date | 01 March 1949 |
| Author | R. S. Milne |
The
Place
of
Public
Administration in
a
University
Education
By
R.
S.
MILNE
HIS article is intended to be neither
Tdogmatic nor didactic. The aims of
its author, who has only recently begun
to teach Public Administration as a
University subject, are necessarily ex-
ploratory and analytical. Its purpose is
to examine under what conditions,
if
any,
the subject of Public Administration has
a
place
in
first degree courses in Uni-
versities, and what its scope might be in
such a framework. The problem is, of
course, not a new one
;
the pages of this
journal are ample evidence of that.
It
is
suggested,
all
the same, that these pages
also show that there is still room for
profitable discussion on the topic.
MEANING
OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
It
is necessary to start by being more
precise about the meaning of
“
Public
Administration,”
so
numerous are the
sources of possible confusion. Firstly,
the term may refer to a degree or diploma
course, generally described
as
“
in
”
Public Administration, but made up
of
several Social Science subjects, one of
which may itself be called “Public
Administration.” Perhaps
it
would be
more proper to say that these courses
were
“
for
’’
Public Administration
rather than
‘‘
in
”
is.
Alternatively, the
words may stand for the title of a single
subjecc
:
ii is this meaning of the term
with which
this
article is chiefly con-
cerned. There can be no doubt that
carefully chosen branches of the
SociaI
Sciences, often called
“
background
subjects,” such as Political Science and
Economics,
will
be of great use to those
being educated for administration. It is
only thus that they
can
be shown the
heavenly spheres surrounding their
own
earthy circle
of
operations. Nowhere
but in a University
can
a student make
this broad survey
of
related knowledge.
Yet
this
survey
alone
is
surely
in-
sufficient
to
satisfy the demands of those
who urge education for administration.
“
Background
”
subjects must be a
“
background
”
to
something. The
“
somerhing
”
in this instance might be
described as a subject dealing with the
main processes and problems of ad-
ministration and the methods by which
the latter could be solved. The back-
ground subjects are not, by themselves,
of
value
only
to administrators
:
courses
in them are equally helpful, for example,
to
intending journalists and teachers.
It
may be that a subject
of
this kind
will,
by
its very nature, be unsuitable for
teaching in a University degree course,
an objection which will be considered
shortly. What is certain is that advocates
of education for administration are con-
vinced that it ought to be taught some-
where. They
will
not be satisfied with
anything less than a subject such as that
just outlined, plus a number of suitable
allied subjects. They may, in fact, want
a great deal more. They may have
in
mind post-graduate courses, including
Research and Field Work, perhaps with
specialisation aimed at training for
particular types of administrative jobs,
such as those given
in
some American
Universities.l Again, it
is
possible thar
they would want the subject “Public
Administration
’’
supplemented, even at
an undergraduate level, by rather nar-
rower courses also directed towards
certain particdar types
of
jobs.2
These
further proposals will not be pursued
here.
It
will,
it
is
suggested, be apparent
from the argument that follows, that,
quite apart from their desirability, it
would be well-nigh impossible to get
them accepted by Universities at
presema What
is
being put forward in
this article is a
minimum
requirement,
as
it were, for University education for
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