• Programme information
  • Fast facts
  • Teaching and examination methods
  • International experience
  • Internships
  • Staff
• Course descriptions
• Student profile
• Career prospects
• More information
• Admissions

Programme information

The master's programme in European Public Affairs provides advanced professional training in both the theoretical and practical aspects of transnational European policy-making. The objective is to familiarise you with thinking in European terms, and to enable you to collect and utilise information concerning the public domain in the European Union and in its member states. The programme combines the knowledge base and methods of scientific disciplines with the skills for solving real life policy problems. We therefore use many concrete policy problems as cases, and request from students – cooperating in small groups – to provide concrete solutions based on the literature discussed beforehand.

An international experience

EPA will truly teach you to think in international terms and backgrounds. The core of the curriculum concentrates on analysing European topics and issues, which will be done in a small group of maximum 30 students. Each year, EPA attracts around 10-15 different nationalities, which will make this year a truly international experience. Having to work with students from different educational backgrounds and different nationalities provides you with a solid preparation for a career in an international environment.

Multi-disciplinary

EPA crosses the borders of academic disciplines. Across Europe, there are a great variety of institutions and solutions for problems. The Germans deal differently with healthcare and the labor market than the Spanish or the Romanians do. The fact that countries use different particular legal instruments is often related to differences in political cultural or socio-economic relations. European developments can only be understood within a wide context, in other words, against a background of different disciplines. The financial crisis and the EU’s response – or lack of response – can not be completely understood from a merely economic or financial perspective. The reaction of the EU can only be grasped by also understanding the different national legal, institutional, but also cultural perceptions of market and banking regulation. The programme in European Public Affairs will give you the background to recognise and appreciate these differences while formulating effective policy.

Practice-oriented

EPA crosses borders between theory and practice. Many postgraduate programmes are discipline and research oriented. ‘Practice’ often appears as a description of reality in a textbook. EPA is based on future career needs. As an academic programme, it is research-based, but oriented towards professional practice. A practice-oriented approach means the development of the capacity to apply ideas. Students learn how to analyse problems in their context, as well as to design and assess proposed solutions. This practical approach – further enhanced by our cooperation with the professionals of the European Institute of Public Administration – implies that the programme focuses strongly on developing skills that are important for current or future professional careers.

Problem-based

Learning skills is more than practising techniques, such as language fluency or writing or discussion techniques. It is also a question of educational methodology. Today’s students will be in active professional practice well into the coming decades. Especially in the European context, they will practice during a period of accelerating and massive change in public sector management. This means that the knowledge students acquire during their education will become outdated during their professional practice.

Changes in society and in their profession will make self-directed learning throughout their career a sine qua non. Adapting to and participating in change requires the development of a number of component competences, such as the skills of communication, critical reasoning, a logical and analytical approach to problems, reasoned decision-making, and self-evaluation. Problem-based learning is an excellent tool in this case, as it is designed for ‘learning to learn’ and for finding solutions for actual problems.

For a professional programme the question is how to bridge the academic theory and the methods on the one hand, and the political reality of public practice on the other. Professionals learn to craft solutions to the problems they face. However, ‘learning by doing’ usually takes place on the job. The challenge is to create a learning environment that integrates academic expertise with ‘learning by doing’. EPA, concluding with a 12-week internship, aims to create such an opportunity for future European public affairs professionals.