Admission requirements
Not applicable
Description
The course focuses on ICT challenges from a public governance perspective. This includes providing a basic understanding of the politico-administrative characteristics that distinguish public from private sector organizations and how these characteristics affect the challenges and opportunities of the use of ICT in government.
Students will be introduced to Public Administration theories and the workings of government as well as different themes that are linked to the major problems identified for ICT projects within government. The themes include aspects of leadership in the public realm, regulatory and collaborative aspects, the governance of new technologies, and policy challenges in the big data age.
Course objectives
The course aims at providing a deeper understanding of the issues, challenges and opportunities brought by the rapid changes in ICT and its applications in government over recent years. By the end of the course, the you will:
have an understanding of key public administration concepts;
be able to identify key dynamics in government that facilitate or hinder ICT implementation.
be able to write policy recommendations based on real-world challenges in combination with theoretical insights;
Timetable
In MyTimetable, you can find all course and programme schedules, allowing you to create your personal timetable. Activities for which you have enrolled via MyStudyMap will automatically appear in your timetable.
Additionally, you can easily link MyTimetable to a calendar app on your phone, and schedule changes will be automatically updated in your calendar. You can also choose to receive email notifications about schedule changes. You can enable notifications in Settings after logging in.
Questions? Watch the video, read the instructions, or contact the ISSC helpdesk.
Note: Joint Degree students from Leiden/Delft need to combine information from both the Leiden and Delft MyTimetables to see a complete schedule. This video explains how to do it.
Mode of instruction
The course is based on a combination of lectures, class discussions and some practical exercises. The lectures will present the background material for each session. Do not expect the lectures to cover each and every topic from the assigned readings. Instead, the lectures will be mostly focused on the more difficult and controversial issues. Hence, it is essential that you read the assigned literature in advance of the sessions.
Assessment method
Bi-weekly discussion questions (10%)
Preparation of discussion questions for each lecture based on the assigned readings. Those questions will be used throughout the lecture to touch upon different aspects of the literature.Essay (30%)
The essay will address a question from the general public administration literature and its connection to IT-related challenges and should be treated as an assignment building up to the final paper.Final paper (60%)
The final paper builds on the essay.
Details about the essay and final paper will be made available via Brightspace.
The teacher will inform the students how the inspection of and follow-up discussion of the exams will take place.
Reading list
The course material is based on the book Public Management in an Information Age: Towards Strategic Public Information Management (2022, Bloomsbury). There are copies available in the university library, but students are advised to buy a copy from an online retailer where it costs about 40 euros.
Registration
As a student, you are responsible for enrolling on time through MyStudyMap.
In this short video, you can see step-by-step how to enrol for courses in MyStudyMap.
Extensive information about the operation of MyStudyMap can be found here.
There are two enrolment periods per year:
Enrolment for the fall opens in July
Enrolment for the spring opens in December
See this page for more information about deadlines and enrolling for courses and exams.
Note:
It is mandatory to enrol for all activities of a course that you are going to follow.
Your enrolment is only complete when you submit your course planning in the ‘Ready for enrolment’ tab by clicking ‘Send’.
Not being enrolled for an exam/resit means that you are not allowed to participate in the exam/resit.
Contact
Programme Co-ordinator: ms. Esme Caubo
Remarks
There is only limited capacity for external students. Please contact the programme Co-ordinator
Also register for every course in Brightspace. Important information about the course is posted here.
Software
Starting from the 2024/2025 academic year, the Faculty of Science will use the software distribution platform Academic Software. Through this platform, you can access the software needed for specific courses in your studies. For some software, your laptop must meet certain system requirements, which will be specified with the software. It is important to install the software before the start of the course. More information about the laptop requirements can be found on the student website.