Abstract:

The new Public Administration and Management (PAM) degree of the Universitat Jaume I (UJI) is running since the 2012-2013 academic year with less success than expected. The PAM degree is a response to the society, which requires the modernization of public administration, methods and techniques for more effective management and renewed commitment to public service and ethics. Graduates in PAM acquire comprehensive and multidisciplinary skills for positions of management and technical control, especially in the public sector but also in private. In addition, they have many and varied career expectatives, from the local administration until European and international administration, or both the public and private sector. The PAM degree was designed and created to maintain the Public Administration and Management studies, named Diploma in Management and Public Administration, which started in 1992 with a pre-Bologna curriculum (1992-2014).

The PAM curriculum was designed and balanced, not only to be offered to high-school students, but also to potential students working, mainly in public administration organisms, who want to improve their professional position. In the new degree, the expected academic results were estimated from the data obtained for the old Diploma in Management and Public Administration: a graduation rate of 25%; a dropout rate of 35%; and an efficiency rate of 70%. Additionally, the UJI university management board fixed a threshold of 70 new students per year in order to assure the sustainability of the PAM degree.

Nevertheless, the measured results until now (the academic year of 2012-2013) are below the expected ones, even than other degrees in the same knowledge area (Law, Labor Relationships and Tourism degrees): 66 new students; 58.8% of efficiency rate; 47.7% of performance rate; and 27.3% of dropout rate. Logically, the graduation rate is not yet calculable until the first class be graduated (2015-2016). The most remarkable difference is the efficiency rate from estimated to obtained values: 11.2%. Other parameter emerged from results is the degree election order with surprising values: from the new 66 students, about a 30% elected PAM as second or third option in the pre-registration process. That is an indirect measure of the risk of demotivation which, unfortunately, has been expressed in too many cases from 2012 as parts of the dropout rate.

The aim of this work is to analyze the past and current situation (2012-2013 and first semester of 2013-2014), comparing against results of the old Diploma in Management and Public Administration and other degrees in the Law and Administration knowledge area, and also taking in account the economic and social context in Spain during the same period. Then, we will describe a set of strategic and learning solutions, coming from a brainstorming workshop where the most of lecturers have participated, to improve the future results and redirect the current situation. Some of these solutions are been applied in the second semester of 2013-2014 (January to May, 2014). UJI supporting units and teaching staff are tightly collaborating in the above mentioned initiatives.

Keywords:

Public Management and Administration Degree, student demotivation, academic efficiency rate, academic performance rate, Law and Administration knowledge area.