The quality and accreditation of online public administration programs

Abstract

Covid-19 accelerated the development of online learning around the world. As a result, many universities transitioned to fully online or hybrid learning in which face-to-face and online teaching are combined. Many universities indicated that they will continue with online or hybrid learning in a post-pandemic world indicating that online programs will remain a constant feature of the education landscape. This is also applicable to public administration programs at present, a total of 216 Master of Public Administration (MPA) degrees are available for online study at the StudyPortal (2022), offered by a variety of different universities. However, with the exception of the USA, national and international accreditation bodies often only assess the quality of traditional face-to-face programmes and neglect the accreditation of hybrid and online programs. This also applies to public administration programmes resulting in a large number of online programs not being assessed in terms of quality and standard. Accreditation plays an important role in ensuring quality and standards are adhered to. In terms of public administration programmes accreditation ensures that graduates have the knowledge and skills to contribute to a public service that is responsive, effective and efficient. This article argues that in a post-pandemic work it is important to assess the quality and standard of online educational programs in all disciplines but specifically in The Quality and Accreditation of Online Public Administration Programs L van Jaarsveldt Department of Public Administration and Management University of South Africa M S de Vries* School of Public Management, Governance and Public Policy University of Johannesburg Radboud University Nijmegen H Kroukamp Department of Public Administration and Management University of the Free StateAdministratio Publica | Vol 31 No 1 March 2023 43 INTRODUCTION The development and implementation of quality public services require senior public servants to be well-educated and trained. Consequently, the need for quality public administration programmes of a high standard. However, this raises the question of who and what determines the quality and standards of such programmes. Peer assessments, national and international accreditation are seen as powerful instruments to determine the quality of higher education programmes (cf. Harvey 2004). As stated by the New England Commission of Higher Education (2018), becoming accredited is a status granted to an educational institution or a programme, indicating that quality standards have been met or exceeded. The origin of accreditation dates back to the late 1800s, while the first professional accreditation bodies were created in 1905 (Matthews 2018:33). These professional accreditation groups were formed to prevent the uneven delivery of professional education programmes (Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications 1995). Such accreditation concentrated on classic academic programmes; for example, medicine; with other disciplines, for instance, public administration that received its first accreditation from NASPAA (the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration) only in 1980 (NASPAA 2023). However, since accreditation started it has predominantly been face-to-face programmes that formed the focus of assessment, excluding hybrid and online programs. It was only in 1996 that the first online accredited and fully web-based university was developed (Online Schools 2022). Since then, many models, standards, and requirements were developed for the accreditation of online education programs. The exponential growth of online education during the Covid-19 pandemic amplified the need for accreditation to determine the quality and standard of these offerings. This drastic increase in online programs is supported by Rungta (2022), who states that in 2017, the BlackBoard platform was used by 30% of all higher education institutions for online education. By 2020, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, in approximately 90% of all countries, a digital online learning process was adopted, with many higher education institutions indicating they would stay (at least partly) online after the pandemic. This view is also supported by Toquero (2020), who mentions that universities around the world that closed public administration to ensure the provision of quality public services. This article recommends that specific criteria be added to the existing accreditation standards already being used for public administration programmes to assess not only face-to-face programmes but also online offerings.