Our SPEA Professor Yu Wei, Vice Dean Professor Fu Wenlin, attended the NASPAA annual meeting, held by School of Public Administration of Ohio University, on Ohio on Oct. 19 to 21.
The 2016 NASPAA Annual Meeting attracted 545 experts and scholars from federal government, local governments, non-profit organization, and worldwide well-known public administration schools. Held by School of Public Administration of Ohio University, the conference held an in-depth discussion and exchange on topics such as the development of public management disciplines, the reform and innovation of personnel training and teaching methods, the improvement of assessment methods for students’ ability assessment, and the internationalization of public administration. NASPAA announced the theme of the student case simulation competition in February “Food Safety”. Chinese Universities also include Tsinghua University, Renmin University of China, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, and Capital University of Economics and Business.
Director of the MPA Center Prof. Yu Wei, together with NASPAA Chief Certification Officer, experts from Pennsylvania State University and Tennessee State University, shared their latest research on the assessment of students’ abilities in their schools, in Evaluation and Improvement of MPA Required Ability sub-forum. Professor Yu Wei’s report on Decomposition Assessment of Six Capabilities aroused strong interest and wide resonance of presented experts and professors.
As an initiative of NASPAA global development strategy, the meeting also organized a sub-forum for our school MPA project "to enhance the practice of MPA students practical ability training”. SPEA Vice Dean Prof. Fu Wenlin, and Director of MPA International Affairs Prof. Li Huiping, introduced some measures and experience of our MPA Program including Part-time Supervisors Selection, Case Teaching, Applied Graduation Thesis, and International Cooperation Projects， which acquired highly spoke from NASPAA officials and Minnesota University experts.
During the meeting, Professor Yu Wei and Professor Fu Wenlin had an in-depth communication with NASPAA Executive Director Ms. Lauren McFarland, Certification Supervisor Ms. Crystal Calarusse and International Certification Coordinator Mr. Ryan Etzcorn. As an initiative to promote our school to participate in the NASPAA Student Case Simulation Contest, we selected an excellent MPA student to understand the student case competition and to observe the meeting. We showed our MPA students’ excellent talent through this exchange.
In addition, with the opportunity of this annual meeting, SPEA has conducted interactive exchanges with many universities in the United States and China, and successfully reached preliminary cooperation intentions with the University of Minnesota and the School of Public Affairs and Management of Rutgers University. Both sides will actively explore exchange model for all level outstanding students.
NASPAA is a Union of Universities in Public Administration, Public Policy, and Public Affairs, representing international standard of Public Service Education, aiming at maintaining and improving education quality in public administration area, containing more than 300 member universities, and its sub-organization COPRA being most authoritative certificate organization in International Public Service Education Area.