The Graduate Program in Public Management - PPGP of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte - UFRN, is an integral part of the Applied Social Sciences Center - CCSA and was created in 2010.

Currently, it offers a Professional Master's Degree in Public Management, at a stricto sensu graduate level, with the purpose of preparing directors of public institutions. The Program’s faculty comprises professors from UFRN’s Applied Social Sciences Center (CCSA), in addition to invited professors and collaborators.

The Program is provided through an agreement with the interested institutions, which may contact the program coordination for more information.

General purpose:

The purpose of the Professional Master’s Degree Program in Public Management is the education/training of skilled staff in the field of public administration, with the capacity to reflect on the new role of the State in a globalized context, working within a network, with new organizational forms, with multiple providers and with a more organized and more schooled society. The professionalization of civil servants is a necessity of the State and only with professionals with a solid theoretical basis will the State be able to fulfill its role to society.

Specific purposes:

1. Improving the knowledge of professionals in public management, seeking improvement and updating in this area;

2. Promoting the valorization and development of management skills of public servants through the development of knowledge, attitudes and behaviors directed to their performance in public management;

3. Forming an up-to-date outlook of public management, seeking to analyze the current context and the latest innovations in the field of study of public management;

4. Providing managerial knowledge that can provide support for the decision-making of the employees in an environment of uncertainty, aiming to improve the quality and effectiveness of their work;

5. Educating/training professionals capable of disseminating knowledge in the public sector by reflecting on current practices based on the Program’s contents.

Graduate Profile

The Professional Master in Public Management provides a multidisciplinary training/education in order to ensure an understanding of the complexity of the normative, organizational and decision-making issues that demarcate the public administration and make it unique. It also ensures a solid training/education in specific areas of public administration to ensure the conditions of governance and thus enable a process of formulation, implementation and evaluation of public policies in line with the public interest. Likewise, it makes the Master's student master different methodologies of intervention in the economic, social, political and administrative processes.

The student graduated in the Professional Master in Public Management course will be a public manager capable of working in a scenario of constant changes and increasing demands with respect to the results of the public sector, as well as with respect to transparency and accountability. Based on the acquired knowledge, it is expected that he/she will be able to diagnose, analyze and make decisions both in the field of organizational management and in the universe of public policies.

Characteristics of the Selection Process

The selection comprises the following steps: (1) ANPAD test (2) Essay, with disqualifying nature; (3) Technical Interview, conducted by the Selection Committee and/or by other professors from the PPGP. In the interview it will be tackled aspects related to the motivations and academic interests of the candidate regarding the Professional Master in Public Management. It will also be discussed his/her preliminary research project, which may be in the form of a Tentative Intervention Proposal or of a Tentative Master's degree Dissertation.

The Intervention Proposal is a simplified document of intention to carry out change or administrative innovation in a given public institution, with a view to improving performance (increase of efficiency, reduction of costs, social change or accountability). It must contain the following structure: Introduction (reference to what one intends to do, indicating the institution object of the intervention, general objective and specific objectives to be achieved); Literature review (brief analysis of the basic bibliographic sources, especially those directly related to the subject to be investigated); Methodology (specification of the methods to be used in the proposal); Current Model (a broad and complete description of the particular management system prevailing at a given public institution, which is the subject of the Intervention Project, with extremely detailed information about its mode of operation and the identified problems); Proposed Model (a broad and complete description of the particular management system to be implemented in a given public institution, with extremely detailed information about its mode of operation); Results Assessment (comparative analysis of the two models - current and proposed - with explicit and substantiated evidence of the advantages of the new system in relation to the old one); References (bibliographical sources researched).

The Master’s Dissertation is an instrument in which the student must demonstrate mastery of the chosen subject, ability to systematize ideas and use of an adequate scientific methodology. It shall obey the following structure: Title; Introduction; Research Problem and Objectives; Justification; Literature review; Research methodology; Schedule; References.

The number of available places is defined according to the capacity of orientation of each professor of the program and established in order to maintain a continuous process of selection.

Curricular Proposal

The program has a concentration area with the title “Public Management” and its proposal is to provide the student with conditions for the development of his/her critical capacity and innovative spirit regarding the role of the State as formulator and implementer of public policies, as well as with respect to the technical procedures of public planning and management.

There is a line of research entitled “Public Management and Policies” focusing on the processes of modernization of public administration at the federal, state and municipal levels. The analysis strategy is based on the approach of innovation in public management, both in managerial aspects and in public policies, and, therefore, seeks to investigate issues such as contracting and results-based management, flexibility in management, intersectoriality in public policies, transparency in management, accountability, social participation, territoriality, intergovernmental relations, as well as specific themes such as people management, process management, public finance, among others. In relation to public policies, this Line aims at understanding the performance of the State through its institutional apparatus, its regulatory mechanisms and the processes of social participation - at national, regional, state or municipal level; it also involves the analysis of the stages of formulation, implementation and evaluation of public policies.

The program load involves 360 hours-lessons with students completing 24 credits, 10 credits in compulsory and 14 credits in electives. All compulsory subjects are two-credit courses, whereas electives may be two-credit or one-credit courses.

The Mandatory Training seeks to guarantee the theoretical foundation necessary for the study of a field that is multidisciplinary in nature. Thus, this Training favors the basic contents of the Public Administration, of the Political Institutions and of the Policy Cycle with the understanding that these contents help to contextualize the problematic of the State and its complexity. In addition to these contents, the mandatory contents are also those related to the development of competencies linked to the preparation of research studies and of technical nature.

The Training with the electives seeks to emphasize contents capable of giving specific training on the particularities of public administration, covering in particular the following aspects: a) fundamentals of public administration; b) democratization of the State and mechanisms of social control; c) public management; d) institutional management capacity. It also includes contents capable of supporting management practices. It is important to emphasize the flexibility of the curricular structure by including the subjects Special Topics (with 1 or 2 credits) because, given its nature, it ensures the inclusion of contemporary public administration themes dynamically in the form of seminars and/or workshops.

The two Training thus constitute a set of courses that seek to meet the objectives of the Professional Master's Program, which is to provide a critical training on the challenges of the public administration to the managers of different organizational levels while enabling them to develop practical solutions that improve institutions' performance and which help them achieve their goals with efficiency and effectiveness.

Curricular Structure

Address:
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Gestão Pública
Edifício do Centro de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas
Campus Universitário - Bairro Lagoa Nova - Caixa Postal 1630
CEP: 59078-970 - NATAL/RN - BRASIL
 
Phone: +55 84 3342-2288 Ramal: 188 e 189
              +55 84 99474-6765
Email: ppgp.ufrn@gmail.com

Office Hours
From Monday to Friday, from 08:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and from 02:00 p.m. to 05:00 p.m.