EAPAA now has 6 accreditation categories for your programme (new ones in italic):

• first cycle bachelor level public administration programmes (3 or 4 years)
• second cycle graduate/master level public administration programmes (1 or 2 years)
• combined/comprehensive public administration programmes (4 or 5 years, combining bachelor and master programme)
• executive/mid career public administration master programmes (1 or 2 years)
• second cycle graduate/master level public sector specialisation programmes (1 or 2 years)
• executive/mid career public sector specialisation master programmes (1 or 2 years)

The public sector specialisation catagories are added to accomodate programmes that don't offer a 'full' public administration programme, but e.g. a programme in public economy or management of public health institutions.

What should be included next to ‘relevant elements of public administration’, are:

• multidisciplinary approach of public issues
• the specific nature of the public sector
• public sector values
• research skills

The NISPAcee Anual Conference will be held May 23 - 26, 2012, in Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia (FYR Macedonia)
During this conference the following EAPAA meetings will beorganised:
 
EAPAA Workshop "Training for potential Site Visit Team members"
Wednesday May 23, 2012, 12.00-13.30 hrs (just before the conference opening)

If you want to participate, please send an email to sg@eapaa.org!
The workshop will inform potential site visit team members on:
the EAPAA criteria and procedures for accreditation
the purpose of the site visit and the role of site visit team members
some pitfalls in conducting a site visit
All conference attendants are welcome, however, a potential academic EAPAA site visit team member:

• is a senior public administration scholar (full or associate professor);
• has more than 5 years of experience in public administration teaching on the master level;
• has preferably experience with programme evaluation and/or accreditation;
• is willing to serve in an EAPAA site visit team abroad (2-3 days) while only the travel and lodging costs are covered;
• has some international experience;
• is speaking English, German or French.

 
EAPAA Advisory Panel
Thursday May 24, 2012, 14.30-16.00 hrs

Since 1-1-2011 EAPAA has new statutes. No longer public administration programmes can be member of EAPAA. Instead EAPAA now has two corporate members: EGPA and NISPAcee.
However, the communication between EAPAA and public administration programmes that have interest in accreditation is very important. Therefore EAPAA has an Advisory Panel. All EAPAA affiliated programmes (the former members) explicitly are invited to the Advisory Panel meetings which are organised during the annual NISPAcee conference in May and the annual EGPA conference in September.
During the Advisory Panel meetings information will be given about relevant developments in- and outside EAPAA on accreditation. Advice will be asked from the participants on certain issues, and changes in the EAPAA accreditation criteria and procedures will be explained.
This year the following issues are on the agenda:

1. A new category in EAPAA accreditation for public sector specialisation
2. Competences and learning outcomes: the Tuning PA project
3. Agreement with NASPAA about collaboration
4. EAPAA’s internal self-evaluation

 
EAPAA Workshop "How to prepare for accreditation"
Friday May 25, 2011, 11.30-13.00 hrs

The goal of the meeting is threefold:
to inform the attendees about the EAPAA accreditation process in general (application, self-evaluation, site visit and decision by the EAPAA Accreditation Committee);
to point out the most important elements in the preparation of programmes for EAPAA accreditation: when is a programme ready for accreditation, and what is needed to write an adequate self-evaluation report;
to sketch the requisites and procedure to become an EAPAA site visit team member.

After several rounds of discussion this year, a Memorandum of Understanding between NASPAA and EAPAA was signed. This MoU details the way NASPAA and EAPAA will collaborate when European programmes apply for NASPAA accreditation.

You may find the text of this MoU here.

On November 30, 2011, the secretary-general of EAPAA  presented at the INQAAHE/ENQA seminar in Brussels. The title of the presentation was “International Professional or Disciplinary Accreditation; A Necessary Supplement to National Quality Assurance”. Main argument of the presentation was that in the present accreditation system which is dominated by national accreditation institutions and rules, there is too little attention for the content of study programmes. In a more balanced system the assurance of the quality of the content of programmes should be guaranteed through involvement of international disciplinary or professional associations.
The slides of the presentation can be found here.

eOn November 29, 2011 the European Alliance for Subject Specific and Professional Accreditation and Quality Assurance (EASPA) was founded in Düsseldorf (Germany). EAPAA is one of the 7 founding members. EASPA wants to be a forum for the community of disciplinary, field specific European networks of quality assurance that assess the quality of study programs, schools or professional individuals. The first act of the new organisation was the acceptance by the members of the so-called Düsseldorf Declaration in which the members pledge to support the Ministers of Education of the European Higher Education Area to accomplish their goal to complete the HEA by 2020.
The Düsseldorf Declaration can be found here.

EAPAA has received a letter from ENQA in which the candidate-membership of EAPAA is confirmed. This implies that according to the material presented, EAPAA substantially complies with the European Standards en Guidelines for Quality Assurance. For full ENQA membership an external review is necessary within two years.

At the 2011 EGPA conference in Bucharest a proposal was launched to start a Tuning project for the public administration discipline. The Tuning project is aimed at the development of generic and subject-specific competences. When enough public administration programmes in Europe are  participating, such a project could be launched. EGPA will seek the cooperation of NISPAcee for this project.
More information on the Tuning project can be found at http://tuning.unideusto.org/tuningeu

The meetings of the EAPAA Advisory Panel was held on September 7, 2011 just before the opening of the EGPA conference. The affiliated programmes and other interested persons were informed about developments in the accreditation world in general (e.g about competences and learning outcomes) and developments in EAPAA in particular (e.g. about EAPAA’s own evaluation, and the discussions with NASPAA).

Two EAPAA Board members, the chair of the EAPAA Accreditation Committee and the secretary-general used their presence in  Rome to meet the current President of NASPAA, prof. Frances Berry about a possible Memorandum of Understanding about the NASPAA accreditation of public administration programmes in the EAPAA region. NASPAA is offering its accreditation to ‘American style programmes’ around the world. Because both organisations don’t want compete, but rather strengthen each other, a MoU is drafted on the ‘rules of collaboration’ between both organisations. EAPAA’s aim is to stress the complementarity of NASPAA accreditation to EAPAA accreditation. A coordinated (or joint) accreditation should be promoted id a programme is not already accredited by EAPAA.

During the annual IASIA conference in Rome this year (13-17 June) EAPAA was presented at a meeting about the relations between IASIA at the one hand and other organizations like NASPAA, ASPA, NISPAcee and EAPAA, at the other. It was stressed by the EAPAA’s secretary-general that both organisations share the commitment to improve the quality of public administration education. IASIA is in the process to establish a system of accreditation for both public administration training institutes and public administration degree programmes. It is EAPAA’s opinion IASIA should focus on training institutes, and degree programmes in other regions than Europe and North America where well established public administration accreditation systems are operational.