Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration

The public sector is one of the three main pillars of the economy, and its efficient administration is crucial for sustainable economic development. This programme, therefore, aligns with the Mission of the University of Zambia, which is: "To provide relevant, innovative, and demand-driven higher education for socio-economic development through teaching, research, consultancy, and community service." It also resonates with the purpose of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, which is: " The purpose of the school is to alleviate the national manpower shortage in the fields of social sciences and humanities by providing a broadly-based degree that would equip graduates to respond constructively and flexibly to the developing requirements of the public and private sectors."

By training competent public administrators, the programme directly supports Zambia’s Eighth National Development Plan (8NDP), which aims to enhance governance, public sector efficiency, and economic diversification. The 8NDP prioritizes good governance, institutional strengthening, and public sector reforms to foster national development. Public administration graduates play a key role in realizing these objectives by ensuring transparency, accountability, and effective policy implementation in public institutions.

In sum, the Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration degree contributes significantly to national development by preparing graduates to serve as professional administrators who uphold efficiency, integrity, and innovation in the public sector. This aligns with both the University of Zambia’s broader mission and the country’s long-term development aspirations as outlined in the 8NDP.

Human Resource Gap:

The public sector is a key component with huge potential to contribute towards Zambia’s wealth creation and economic development. As a result, the sector has remained a major source of employment for many Zambian graduates. Around 35 percent formal employment in Zambia is in the public sector. The programme therefore helps produce the needed human resource to manage the public sector.

Relevance

The programme meets the needs of students and other stakeholders by providing training that is well targeted to the individual educational requirements and goals of national development. The students are also exposed to learning processes that build their cognitive and practical skills through classroom interaction, internship and field work. Other stakeholders like the industry are provided with readily available source of employees.

Acceptability

The department of Government and Management Studies constantly creates new programmes as well as make changes to existing ones based on the need to update the courses in order to include new knowledge, meet the demands of the industry, changes in staffing, changes in educational policy or emerging issues in the national and global environment.

The overriding interest of stakeholders in this programme is the development of human resources capable of managing, monitoring, and evaluating public policies, projects, and programmes across different sectors for the betterment of Zambian society and beyond. Stakeholders also benefit by having a programme that contributes to advancements in the principles, techniques, methods, and approaches in public administration and governance. The development of the programme has therefore endeavoured to address the interests and requirements of each of the identified stakeholders, ensuring alignment with national development goals and the broader vision of the University of Zambia.

The aims of the programmes are numerous. They include:

1. Training in the principles and applications of Public Administration.
2. Addressing public management challenges and issues.
3. Contribution to national capacity for public service management and effective leadership.
4. Enhancing capacity in teaching, research and publications in the fields of public administration.

1. Foundational Competences

• Analyse and explain the various branches of political science.
• Explain the evolution and growth of the major theories of Public Administration.
• Explain the different theories, approaches and practices to the study of Public Administration, their efficacy and limitations.

• Apply the various research methods and techniques in Public Administration

  2. Practical Competences

• Act in a manner that promotes equality regardless of gender, ethnic, political and religious affiliation.
• Act in a manner that promotes social equity and sustainable development
• Analyse and explain the various components of Public Administration.
• Analyse the complexity and dynamics of different administrative systems.

• Compare and contrast different Public Administrative systems.

  3. Reflexive Competence

• Appraise and provide advice to public administrative actors on the implementation of public policies, programmes and projects.
• Provide policy relevant information to policy-makers