Translating between public administration and the digital. A study on the motivation and career choices of digital governance students

Lember, Veiko; Crompvoets, Joep; van de Walle, Steven; Balbach, Thomas; Clever, Lena; Becker, Jörg; Brandt, Tobias; Räckers, Michael; Villena Tagle, Claudia; Juuse, Egert

Abstract

Educational programmes in eGovernment or digital government attract a diverse set of students who are interested in the public sector and technological trends. These programmes aim to train a new generation of digital government professionals. However, we know relatively little about how such programmes succeed in training translators who are able to bridge the world of the public sector and that of digitalization. In this paper we systematically study the characteristics and motivations programme applicants to the Erasmus Mundus MSc in Public Sector Innovation and eGovernance, as well as the programme outcomes in terms of the substantive interests of students as reflected in MSc theses and post-study career choices. We find that the number of applicants from an IT or tech background remains rather low, and that the applicants almost exclusively come from outside of Europe. Applicants show a good grasp of the relevance and urgency of digital transformation to develop their countries, yet application letters suggest a weaker tech-inspired motivation to study digital public governance. Finally, we find that consulting firms with a specialisation in public sector projects and digital governance hold significant appeal to graduates.