Doctor of Philosophy in Public Administration

In line with the vision of the University of Zambia i.e. “A renowned university with a global appeal that is driven by pursuit of knowledge, research, innovation, and responsiveness to societal needs.”, and mission i.e. “To provide quality and relevant higher education, research and innovation that shape the future of society”, the PhD in Public Administration is designed to produce graduates with the relevant skills and knowledge in public administration. It contributes immensely to developing and promoting the profession of Public Administration by imparting graduates with skills and knowledge relevant to ensuring successful initiation, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of activities in the public sector. Through this programme, a cadre of specialists in the field of Public Administration, who will contribute to finding solutions to the challenges of administering and delivering services in the public sector in Zambia and the African continent, will be produced. The curriculum was designed to prepare the local and international learners to become skilled in public administration and research, professionals who will be competent to play a key role towards improvement of human resources. Particular attention has been paid to ensuring that theory and practice are blended in order to provide adequate opportunities to the learners to develop appropriate knowledge, skills, and attitudes.

The programme structure provides a concise summary of the main features of the programme and the intended learning outcomes that a student might reasonably be expected to achieve and demonstrate if he/she takes full advantage of the learning opportunities that are provided by the programme

Human resource gap
The 21st century has seen an increase in the number and complexity of social problems. In addition, citizens and many other stakeholders are increasingly demanding and expecting improved, efficient and effective solutions to these problems. Governments, including that of Zambia, have to respond by coming up with solutions that require sophisticated ideas and techniques. This is usually done by administering the public sector in and appropriate manner. This is because 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 of formal employment in Zambia is in the public sector. Therefore, the PhD in Public Administration is designed to equip students with the relevant and up to date knowledge, skills, tools and methods that will enable them to effectively and competently manage the public sector.

Relevance
In view of the human resource gap discussed above, the relevance of the PhD in Public Administration cannot be overemphasized. 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. Additionally, the programme provides readily available human resource to different sectors including health, education, mining, agriculture, commerce, among others. The programme is designed to equip candidates with skills that enable them to contribute effectively to the management of the public sector. These skills include: research and analytical skills; ability to develop strategies for policy development; capacity to analyse complex societal problems and suggest mechanisms for negating them; ability to lead both state and non-state organisations.

Stakeholders have decried the need for professional growth of personnel in the system after first and second degrees. Therefore, this programme will ensure that experts are developed at this level to drive and guide successful political and governance activities and decisions in Zambia and beyond. This programme is also designed to enable those with the degrees of Master of Public Administration and related fields proceed to undertake this PhD degree, thus making them eligible to pursue Post-doctorate level learning. To this end, 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.

Therefore, this structured programme for PhD in Public Administration is designed to ensure that doctoral training at UNZA achieves the intended learning outcomes and competency requirements for the level of qualification and meets the expected standards. This PhD programme has been designed to ensure that candidates acquire the required advanced knowledge, skills, and attitudes expected of a PhD graduate at Level 10 of the Zambia Qualifications Framework (ZQF). This will be done through various learning methods and techniques, including the undertaking of field work that will build their research, leadership, and scholarly competences to develop and emerge into independent researchers.

Acceptability
The main stakeholders in the PhD in Public Administration are government ministries, departments, universities, agencies, NGOs, international agencies and organisations, and private sectors organisations. The overriding interest of these stakeholders is the development of human resources capable of analysing complex issues and providing solutions to improve the performance of both state and non-state organisations.

The aim of the PhD in Public administration degree is to engage students into broad-based, critical and scholarly learning and advanced research of Public Administration issues relevant to the local and national setting of Zambia, as well as internationally. It will also enhance capacity in teaching, research and publications in the fields of public administration.

At the end of the PhD in Public Administration programme, the graduate should be able to:
1. Generate new scientific knowledge in the field of public administration;
2. Appraise existing broad-based knowledge in the specialized field/discipline of public administration;
3. Demonstrate mastery of technical and experimental research methodologies in public administration;
4. Conduct research in public administration;
5. Apply computational skills encompassing relevant statistical analysis methods and informatics literacy in public administration;
6. Communicate scientific concepts and information in various presentation formats and forums;
7. Apply leadership, mentorship, and management skills to develop others and self in a professional nature;
8. Demonstrate competent attributes such as motivation, good character, perseverance, and adaptability